NEWPORT — This was supposed to be the year David Kimball made a decent living as a salmon fisherman.
The 34-year-old Newport troller has worked as a skipper on other people’s boats in years past, the years where returns from the feeder rivers that drive Oregon’s salmon run were so decimated that the federal government declared an economic disaster in the fishery.
But this was supposed to be a new year. Runs on the fishery’s most important regional river, the Sacramento, were booming. Federal regulators lifted the restrictions that have kept the fleet from earning a decent living for the past four years. Kimball bought his own boat.
Then, the fish didn’t show up. After sinking tens of thousands of dollars into his new venture, Kimball has caught, at most, 150 Chinook salmon since the season began in April, earning about $8,000, he said. He’s now picking mushrooms to support his three children.
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