3. Port Governance and Infrastructure

Crescent City Harbor is managed by the Crescent City Harbor District, an Independent Special District of the State, governed by a Harbor Commission whose five members are elected by the voters of Del Norte County. Crescent City Harbor is a shallow-draft, critical harbor of refuge, and the only “harbor of refuge” between Humboldt Bay and Coos Bay. The Harbor Commission appoints a Harbormaster who oversees daily operations and staff. The Harbor District owns and is responsible for about half of the immediate harbor area (~35 acres), with the District boundary and Sphere of Influence coinciding with that of the county. Revenue to support the Harbor District’s infrastructure and functions is derived from leases, concessions, slip and launch fees, grants and taxes.

The Inner Boat Basin, rebuilt in 2014 following the 2011 tsunami, has 240 berths; roughly 80 of these berths were occupied by commercial fishing vessels in 2018. There are two boat lifts at the harbor, a 30-ton lift owned and operated by the Harbor District and a 230-ton lift owned and operated by Fashion Blacksmith, a private boatyard and fabricator. The marina has a fish cleaning station (for non-commercial use); fish cleaning on boats or docks is prohibited. The harbor several amenities and dockside workspace and outdoor enclosed storage.

Citizens Dock, which continues to serve as the main dock, is located on the south side of the boat basin mouth and is the site of fuel and ice facilities and unloading stations. In 2018, the unloading stations were occupied by four commercial fish (seafood) receivers. The following fishing-related businesses are also available: three gear shops in town; six storage facilities where gear can be stored in off seasons, including storage area in the harbor’s parking lot; and for people coming from out of town to fish, five RV parks in Crescent City, including one operated by the Harbor District.

For more information about the Crescent City Harbor District see the 2018-2028 Strategic Plan.

3.1 Commercial Seafood Handling Infrastructure

A variety of commercial fish businesses receive, and in some cases, process the catch landed at Crescent City Harbor by commercial fishers (Table 1). These include businesses that lease and operate the fish receiving stations located on Citizens Dock (as noted earlier), other local and non-local businesses that receive the unloaded catch from these receiving station operators, and some fishers who handle their own (and in some cases others’) catch. In 2021, 26 distinct fish businesses received catch at the port, including 20 businesses that held fish business licensees with a mail, street or plant address of Crescent City. Businesses included commercial fishers licensed to receive and sell their catch, and several smaller locally owned receivers that also had retail storefronts and/or restaurants.

Like most ports along the California coast, commercial fish businesses in Crescent City have slowly declined since 2003 (61), with 31 businesses in 2021 (Figure 2). The contraction of the processing sector is in large part due to the 2000 groundfish disaster and subsequent (2003) coastwide federal trawl buyback program (Table 2). With the decline in the year-round groundfish fishery and increasing dependence on the seasonal pink shrimp and Dungeness crab fisheries, receiving and processing businesses struggled to stay afloat.

At the same time, the sector came to be dominated by just two larger processing firms. Smaller local businesses struggled to compete, and several were bought out or forced to close due to economic constraints. The number of multifunction fish business licenses (defined in table above) has increased since the mid 2000s, reflecting a shift towards vertical integration––the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies––which accompanied the dominance of large firms in the seafood sector. Over the same time period, the number of fishermen’s retail licenses has declined (Figure 2).

Another factor contributing to the loss of small fish processors in Crescent City, and the shift to a few larger firms, is the high cost of water and wastewater treatment. In 1993, Crescent City built a new wastewater treatment plant at the harbor, however the high cost of using the plant contributed to the closure of three processing plants, including the port’s major processor Eureka Fisheries (Source). In 2000, Pacific Choice Seafoods, the dominant processor on the West coast, opened in Crescent City and has remained the main processor at the port.

In 2016, the Oregon commercial fishery for pink shrimp obtained Marine Stewardship Council certification. As a result, fishers are paid more when landing their catch in Oregon (as close as the neighboring port of Brookings, 26 miles north of Crescent City), reducing the incentive to land shrimp at Crescent City. In summary, the limited processing capacity, and the fact that no value-added products are produced at the port, has suppressed job growth and wages in the local processing sector.

Figure 2:  Fish Business Licenses held locally, by type, in Crescent City, 1993-2021

Table 2: Timeline of selected events affecting Crescent City’s primary fisheries.