_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District}

Randy Smith says he understands why Pacific Seafood shuttered its facilities in Crescent City and Eureka.

The same regulations the Clackamas, Ore.-based processor gave as its reasoning for abandoning Humboldt and Del Norte counties have also forced Smith and other local fishermen to land their catch elsewhere.

Smith, owner of the Mistasea and member of the Crescent City Commercial Fisherman’s Marketing Association, the California Dungeness Task Force and, up until last year, the Newport, Oregon Board of Shrimp Producers, said he bought a house in Oregon about two years ago because “I’m up there more.” The harbors in California are a place to park a boat and do some repairs, he said, but there’s no infrastructure anymore.

“You can’t blame Pacific Seafood for doing what they did,” said Smith, whose father was one of the first fishermen to work with the company when its CEO opened the Eureka processing facility about 39 years ago. “You don’t know how many pots you’ll get to fish with and you don’t know when you’re going to get to fish…. The state won’t work with you and Fish and Game won’t work with you.”