NEAH BAY — The Makah tribe will receive a $1 million federal Economic Development Administration grant to help design and permit a new fishing dock, warehouse and related office building to replace key, aging facilities, the U.S. Department of Commerce said this week.
“This EDA grant will help the Makah tribe establish a facility that will ensure the long-term viability of its commercial fishing operations, which are the mainstay of the tribe’s economy,” Commerce Secretary John Bryson said Tuesday in a statement.
“The new commercial fishing dock and building will provide the tribe with a state-of-the-art facility incorporating safer and more efficient loading and off-loading facilities, improved security and meeting areas and office space for use by fishermen, buyers and the agencies that oversee fishing operations.”
The overall project, which will cost “upwards of $10 million,” is also intended to enhance the North Olympic Peninsula’s oil-spill-response capabilities by having a safe, secure dock for response vessels, Tribal Chairman Micah McCarty said Wednesday.
The project is also expected to retain 420 jobs, according to the tribe’s grant application.
“It will be a huge relief to the [fishing] fleet and fish-buying operations,” McCarty said.
“This is such an important part of our economy.”
The current dock is more than 65 years old, said Bob Buckingham, Port of Neah Bay director.
“If we lost the current dock, it would be devastating out here,” he said.
The tribe has applied for a federal Department of Transportation grant to supplement the project and also will commit tribal dollars to the effort to replace the structures, McCarty said.
In April, the Justice Department announced that the Makah tribe will receive $25 million from the federal government as part of a $1 billion settlement to 41 tribes who filed a series of lawsuits to reclaim money lost in mismanaged accounts and from royalties for oil, gas, grazing and timber rights on tribal lands.
“This is a significant enough priority to the Tribal Council that we are using some of our recent trust settlement” for the project, Chad Bowechop, Makah marine affairs manager, said Wednesday.
“Of the $25 million, we are dedicating $3.5 million,” Bowechop said.
“That’s a substantial investment, not only to help the fleet maintain its treaty livelihood, but it gives us the opportunity to improve our infrastructure on the water to help meet oil spill contingency plan standards.”
The tribe annually generates more than $10 million in fishing-related revenue from the approximately 300-foot long dock just west of Neah Bay’s town center, McCarty said.
Bowechop said about 70 tribal fishing vessels pull up to the dock fish for whiting, salmon, halibut and black cod.
The revenue generated at the dock in combined fisheries “makes us one of the most effective tribal fleets in the country,” Bowechop said.
The dock is leased to High Tide Seafoods Inc. of Port Angeles and sub-leased to the tribe’s Cape Flattery Fishermen’s Cooperative, McCarty said, adding that individual tribal fishermen do business with the co-op and High Tide.
Jason Roberts, president of the Fishermen’s Cooperative, said more ice production would be a welcome result of the project.
“Our own trawl fleet has a few more million more pounds of fish we could land if we had more ice production,” he said Wednesday.
The dock is so dilapidated that semi-trailers are no longer allowed to load up directly from the end of the dock where the fishing vessel are and have to instead wait for fork lifts to off-load product.
“Once the dock is fixed it will make life much, much easier,” High Tide Seafoods owner and President Ernie Vail said Wednesday.
“One tote of fish at a time is a long process. It will make things great when it’s completed.”
As important as the dock is to Neah Bay’s economy, it’s also dicey being on the dock when it’s in use, Roberts said.
“It’s kind of nerve-wracking, not knowing if you’re going to fall through or not,” he said.
“When the forklift runs up and down the dock, you can feel the whole dock move around.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.