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Tempest at the Terminal
By Jo Bailey and Carl Nyberg
Boyd Dingman with Sea Spirit at Fishermen's Terminal. He hopes to stay. Jo Bailey photo. |
Dingman is a fisherman who has moored his boat at the terminal for the past 64 years--the longest any customer has moored there. He regards the terminal as his "second home." He's spunky and isn't about to give up his fight to keep his boat moored at the terminal. He's supported by fellow fishermen who also moor their boats there. They don't want to see Dingman, one of their own, evicted.
Problem is, he got over $2,000 behind in his moorage payments.
The Port of Seattle confiscated his old 40-foot wood boat, a Monk-design bridge deck cruiser turned gillnetter turned troller. It was sold at auction on September 27 for $200, the same day five other boats were sold because they were also delinquent.
Dingman bought Sea Spirit back from the new owner for $201 and moved his boat back into the terminal earlier this month.
Dingman may not be evicted--he has some choices.
On November 5, Dingman appeared at the office of terminal manager Jim Serrill along with several reporters, fishermen including Pete Knutson and Bret Barnecut, and Maria Cain, mother of former Port Commission candidate Chris Cain. Dingman said he would not leave Serrill's office until he got what he wanted: to stay at the terminal.
"They demanded to see me because the press was involved," Serrill said later. "It was a very confrontational exchange, not necessarily for Boyd, but for other fishermen. Let's say I did not leave the office at my usual time and missed my ferry boat ride home.
"I gave Boyd 48 hours to stay at the terminal, and later extended it to November 20. After that, he has three choices: (1) move his boat out and we write off what he owes the port, (2) pay the full amount he owes and be eligible for a new agreement, or (3) make an arrangement to pay off what he owes."
Dingman would then be eligible as a customer with a standard new agreement by keeping his account current, be outfitted for fishing and have an active fishing license, said Serrill.
"Because he's been here so long and is so active, he'd be eligible with a new agreement. I really respect him--he's the longest term customer in the port. But he did fall behind in his account," Serrill said.
Dingman agrees he's been delinquent at the terminal several times, but has always managed to work things out. Serrill said it is not unusual for delinquent vessels to be eligible for public auction. Often delinquent accounts are resolved just before the auction and the boats are not sold.
Pete Knutson, a fisherman, activist and college professor, was on the terminal docks during Dingman's verbal sparring with the port, saying, "Boyd's quite a fighter. What's happening to him is an extension of the Port's strategy to route us out of Fishermen's Terminal."
Serrill said this is not an attempt to throw out old fishermen. "He was delinquent," he said. "If his account is in good order he's eligible for moorage."
About 370 small fishboats, mostly gillnetters and trollers, moor at Fishermen's Terminal in addition to larger purse seiners, trawlers, crabbers, processors and other commercial vessels. Last spring the Port of Seattle advanced the idea that yachts might also moor there to increase falling revenues and fill vacant moorage slips, paying more to tie up than fishermen pay. The vacancy rate is currently less than 30 percent although it historically has been about 17 percent, said Serrill.
Fishermen loudly protested the Port's plan, saying the terminal was donated more than 80 years ago as a safe harbor for commercial fishermen, not for "yachties" who would demand locked docks and special facilities.
As yet, Seattle Port Commissioners have not made a decision on adding yacht moorage at the terminal. Last summer commissioners agreed the port would make a decision after fishermen returned from Alaska in the fall. Mick Shultz, Port spokesman, indicated that commissioners might discuss Fishermen's Terminal moorage changes, such as adding recreational boats, at either the December or January commission meetings. The next commission meeting is Tuesday, November 27, at SeaTac Airport.
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