Though separated by centuries, Anton Mardesich and the famed explorer Marco Polo had several things in common.
Both were born on islands off what’s now called Croatia, and both had a yen for world travel.
Polo, the first European to write about visiting China, inspired generations of people to follow him there. Mardesich is considered the first Croatian fishermen to come to Everett, arriving in 1898 – five years after the city’s incorporation. He, too, encouraged people to come – one by one – spawning a commercial fleet that once helped feed the world with the bounty from Puget Sound and the coastal waters off Alaska, Oregon and Washington.
Today, that fleet has dwindled to just a few fishermen berthed at docks once crammed with fishing vessels. Nearby is a row of 21 net sheds made of corrugated metal scabbed with rust – places Port of Everett commissioner Don Hopkins calls little more than bingo halls for retired fishermen.
Some sheds still house working nets, but others are used by people working on their cars. One is a mini-warehouse for a neighboring brew pub. Soon they will all be gone, replaced by a $400 million development that will include 660 condominiums, shops, restaurants, offices and a public amphitheater and walkway.
The condo development didn’t kill Everett’s fleet, but it’s likely the last nail in the coffin for an industry that for nearly 100 years has meant more to the community than just dollars and cents.
The Croatians and the Norwegians who built Everett’s fleet were large contributors to the city’s ethnic culture, its church community and its leadership core. Many of their descendants are today’s bankers, doctors, lawmakers and teachers.
Building the fleet
Fleeing political strife and a vineyard blight on the isle of Vis, Anton Mardesich left his hometown of Komiza at the age of 17, coming to Ellis Island as an immigrant, according to Barbara Martinis Piercey of Everett, his granddaughter.
He had little money, but he’d heard of the Puget Sound area and its fishing prospects, so he “hoboed it” across the country by riding the rails, said Jim Piercey, Barbara’s husband.
Mardesich held many jobs before buying his own boat, the Sloga II, with Croatian countryman Paul Martinis Sr., a man who would later be crowned king of the Everett fleet and be lauded for his prowess and leadership by President Eisenhower. On an appreciation night at the Everett Elks Club, the president sent him a telegram describing Martinis’ life as “a typical American story.”
In those days, there were no navigational devices such as global positioning systems. Many of the smaller boats were oar-powered and the nets were pulled by hand. In the San Juan Islands, fishermen once spread the nets by rowboats and then used horses to pull the fish onto the beach, commercial fisherman Jim Zuvela said.
The San Juans were a rich fishing spot, partly because a massive run of prized sockeye salmon heading for Canada’s Fraser River could be intercepted there. Other popular areas included Cape Flattery and Everett’s own Port Gardner.
As the fishermen saved up a few dollars, they would send them to Croatia to bring over a brother. Paul Martinis was aided by Mardesich and eventually saved enough to bring over three brothers, including Tony, Barbara Piercey’s father.
The fleet swelled, forming a fish-buying cooperative called Fisherman’s Packing Corp., which had 78 purse-seining members when it began in 1929. It later grew to more than 225 members. In addition to purse seiners, the city was host to a significant number of gill netters and bottomfish trawlers.
Spreading to Alaska
Using crude charts, part of the Everett fleet made its way to Alaska in the early 1900s on wooden boats of 50 to 60 feet in length, said Dr. Joe Mardesich, whose father Nick, (no direct relationship to Anton) was among the early travelers to the rich fishing grounds.
The trip, which now takes just a few days, took as long as three weeks in the early days, Mardesich said, noting that crews kept live chickens under nets in their skiffs and hung a side of beef from the rigging to eat until they could gather ice and fish from Alaska.
“They also were equipped with a compass that was at best somewhat accurate,” he said, adding the combination of engine fumes and a crew that smoked heavily made it “uncanny that so many trips were made without incident.”
Martinis first crewed on Anton Mardesich’s boat, eventually leading a group of five vessels on the Alaska fishing grounds. The boats worked as a team and split the proceeds.
John Martinis, Paul’s son, explained why his father was so successful.
“He was unbeatable,” John Martinis said. “He understood tides, and he understood exactly how a species of salmon traveled in different areas.”
Jim Piercey, who crewed with Paul’s brother Tony, his father in law, said the Martinis team was highly competitive.
“Where the Martinises went, nobody else came,” he said. You didn’t dare set your net around them. You wouldn’t get it out of the water.” The team was masterful at “corking” other boats – placing their boats in your net so you couldn’t pick it up, Jim Piercey said.
Making a move
Everett’s fleet continued to thrive, but it got its first major blow in 1937, when Fisherman’s Packing moved north to Anacortes, the heart of local fishing.
The fleet didn’t know it, but the move was the start of a long decline.
“You have to have a local plant,” said Pete Granger, the leader of the Washington Sea Grant program, which provides marine advisory services.
Wini Mardesich, 94, of Everett was among the last to work in the cannery. “It was a shock for Everett to lose that,” she said.
Death by 1,000 cuts
Granger, also a fisherman off Lummi Island, visited the Everett docks recently to assess the decline. “I’m surprised at how little there is,” he said.
Here’s a list from Granger and others of the problems commercial fishermen now face:
Lack of processors. “Everett has always had a problem keeping processors,” Granger noted. The last one, Quality Seafoods, moved north to Burlington earlier this year, striking a severe blow to the remaining fisherman. The company supplied ice and froze the fleet’s catch. “You have to have the ice and the processing of fish,” said Lake Stevens gillnetter Roland Hublou. “Our support structure has disappeared.” Company owner Fred Jahns said he “felt like we were forced to move because of the development situation.”
Salmon treaties with Canada. Fraser River sockeye used to be the “money fish” in Puget Sound. But U.S.-Canada treaties reduced the U.S. nontribal commercial catch from 50 percent to 16 percent. “The biggest thing leading to our downfall was trading away those sockeye,” said Everett fisherman Phil Cunningham. Canada agreed to cut down on the number of U.S. coho salmon that it intercepts, but those runs have declined so much in Puget Sound that they are no longer a significant commercial fishery.
The Boldt decision. The 1974 decision by federal Judge George Boldt granted Washington tribes 50 percent of the catch in historic fishing areas. At the time, the tribes didn’t have enough commercial boats to catch all that they were allowed. But they now have a sophisticated fleet and support staff. “There is a parallel government process of managing salmon these days that didn’t exist in the 1970s,” said Pat Pattillo of the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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Photo GalleryDeclining fish runs. John Martinis ran a sports fishing shop, spent 30 years in the Legislature and served five years on the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Council. He calls overfishing the biggest reason for the fleet’s decline. “The (state) department of fisheries was not a resource manager,” he said. “It was managed strictly for the commercial fishery.” These days, salmon declines have dramatically reduced the number of fishing days and the numbers of fish that can be kept. In a 2000 report, the fisheries council noted that around the time Anton Mardesich came to Everett, about 45 million pounds of salmon was caught on the West Coast. By 1996, the catch had dropped to 13 million pounds.
Competition from farmed salmon. Salmon raised in net pens in British Columbia, Norway and Chile have “come on like gangbusters” recently, sending prices down, Granger said. According to the fisheries council report, in the 1970s and ’80s, troll-caught chinook salmon were selling for $4 to $5 a pound. By 1996, the price had plunged to $1.60, “largely because of an expanded farm salmon industry,” the report stated. Granger noted that 2001 was a low point. “They’ve bounced back a little bit as wild fish made a comeback,” he said. “But it’s too late to help these guys.” Commercial fishermen got a boost when Oprah promoted the health benefits of wild salmon on her talk show. “I love Oprah,” said gill netter Pete Arnestad. “She’s helped us a lot.”
Too many commercial licenses. Declining runs have prompted the federal and state governments to buy back licenses. Before buybacks, there were 1,200 purse seiners and 400 gill netters in Washington state. Now there are 202 seiners and 75 gill netters, Hublou said. That may still be too many. “There isn’t much left for the fisherman,” John Martinis said.
Port support. Hublou and other fishermen believe the Port of Everett doesn’t want them around. “They’re converting our waterfront into yuppie city,” he said. But Hopkins of the port noted that commercial boats have long received deeply discounted moorage rates. Port director John Mohr said there will always be berths for commercial vessels, although smaller equipment lockers will replace the work sheds. “We’re transitioning to a pleasure boat marina,” added Port property manager Eric Russell. “It’s always hard to see change happening, but the waterfront is changing just like the city of Everett is changing.”
Unreliable crews. Working on fishing boats used to be a coveted summer job, especially by college students. “In the heydays they had tent cities in Bristol Bay with people all wanting a job,” Arnestad said. Today, crews are paid much less, catches are uncertain and workers are hard to find.
Rising costs. Everything’s going up, including fuel, food and insurance, said purse seiner Mike Borovina of his Alaska forays. “It’s a little more of a gamble every time,” he said.
Looking to the future
The future of the fleet is uncertain, but a comeback is clearly a long shot.
Borovina, like his colleagues, wants to stay in Everett but expects he’ll have to move to Seattle when the net sheds are razed.
The Fish and Wildlife Department’s Pattillo, talking about the state’s fleet in general, said commercial fishermen should try to be optimistic.
Pattillo describes the state’s current fish allocation efforts as more of a “multiple ring circus” than a process. “We end up with an informed consensus that if we have to swallow the medicine, this is the best way to take it,” he said of how fish runs are allocated.
Pattillo said the goal is to restore threatened salmon runs. And he said officials are seeking ways to improve catches through new techniques and seasons.
The Pierceys note that the loss of the fleet is a blow to the whole community, not just Everett’s economy.
“They had a definite effect on the culture (of Everett),” Barbara Piercey said. “The best example of it would happen around Christmas time. Every day, there would be an open house, not only for their fishermen friends, but also their American friends. There was just that feeling. And we don’t have it anymore.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
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