3. Port Governance and Infrastructure

The Port of Humboldt (also known as the Port of Eureka) is located within the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, a Special District of the State. The Harbor District is governed by five commissioners that are elected to staggered four-year terms. The five Harbor District Commission Divisions share the same boundary lines as the Humboldt County Supervisorial Districts. The Harbor District was created in 1973, with operations focused on three primary areas: commercial use, recreational use and conservation. The Harbor District’s main sources of income include a small portion of Humboldt County property taxes; leases on tidelands from dock operators and mariculture ventures; rents and leases for properties including Woodley Island Marina, the Fields Landing Boat Yard and the Redwood Marine Terminals; and commercial space. The Harbor District also accrues income from the Harbor Improvement Surcharge—a fee levied on cargo and deep-draft vessels. In addition, the Harbor District secures grant funds from various sources. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains the shipping channels in Humboldt Bay through annual dredging. The Harbor District has participated as the local sponsor in two federally-authorized channel-deepening projects with the Corps of Engineers (Source).

The Woodley Island Marina, located in Humboldt Bay across from Eureka is the home base for the Harbor District. The marina is the largest in Humboldt Bay with 237 slips for commercial, recreational, research and safety vessels and services that include guest docking facilities, hoists, work area, café and bar, laundry facilities, ships chandlery and boat sales, rentals and lessons. The Fields Landing boatyard is located at the south end of the community of Fields Landing along Humboldt Bay, about seven miles south of Eureka. It is owned by the Harbor District and operated by Reincke Marine Fabrication as a do-it-yourself yard, open 365 days a year. It has a variety of storage options, particularly small boat storage. The boatyard has a mobile boat-lifting (“travel lift” hoist (150-ton capacity), open-air storage that can accommodate boats up to 100 feet in length and an indoor repair facility that can accommodate vessels up to 80 feet in length. Four shipping terminals operate out of Eureka: Fairhaven Terminal, with one berth and a 500-foot wooden pile dock; Fields Landing Terminal, with one berth and a 900-foot dock; Schneider Dock, with one berth and a 400-foot concrete, unlimited load dock; and the Sierra Pacific Industries site, with one berth and a 475-foot wooden dock. Two mariculture businesses are located in Eureka with growing areas in Crescent City Harbor and Arcata Bay (Source).

3.1 Commercial Seafood Handling Infrastructure

A variety of commercial fish businesses receive, and in some cases, process the catch landed at Eureka by commercial fishers (Table 1). These include businesses that lease and operate the fish receiving station located at Fields Landing as well as those along the Eureka waterfront and 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, 35 distinct fish businesses received commercial fishery catches at the port including 14 with plant, street or mailing addresses in Eureka. Fish dusinesses include commercial fishers licensed to receive and sell their catch and smaller locally owned receivers that also had retail storefronts and/or restaurants.

Like most ports along the California coast, the number of commercial fish businesses in Eureka has declined, from 38 businesses in 2002, to 19 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, some receiving and processing businesses struggled to stay afloat. At the same time, the sector became dominated by two larger seafood processors. Over the same period, the number of fishermen’s retail licenses declined from 15 in 2002 to just five in 2021, mirroring an overall reduction in fishing licenses affiliated with the port (Figure 2).

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

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