ODCC: Enhancing the Image of Oregon Dungeness Crab presented by Tim Novotny
Suggested donation: $5 (or what you are able).*
A former journalist, for both broadcast and print media, Tim Novotny worked in Idaho, Illinois, and Wisconsin, before arriving on Oregon’s south coast in 1999 where he would became the news director and main news anchor at KCBY-TV in Coos Bay in 2000. He worked at the TV station for 12 years before moving to the World Newspaper for three more years, reporting and doing multi-media journalism for the website. While working at the newspaper, Novotny went back to school online and earned a master’s degree in public relations. He put that degree to use when he joined the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission in 2017 as Communications Manager/Assistant Administrator. No stranger to the seafood industry, having covered sport and commercial fishing as part of his regular duties at both media outlets, it has still proved to be an eye-opening experience.
“The Oregon Dungeness Commercial Crab fishery is the most valuable single-species fishery in the state. Over the last ten years alone, using a conservative economic multiplier of two, the fishery has brought in over one billion dollars to the Oregon economy. Needless to say, there are many fans of Dungeness crab in the state and some may even know that there is a commission that bears its name. But, a precious few seem to have a firm grasp on what role that commission plays or what brought it into existence in the first place. There are Dungeness crabs to be found in Alaska, California, Washington…but you will only find one Dungeness Crab Commission, and that is here in Oregon. The commission does not manage the fishery, and it does not set a price or help in the price negotiation process. But what the commission does is vital to the overall continued long term success of the industry in so many ways. I will try to shed some light on the work being done by the Crab Commission, and help provide some historical context as to how we got here.”
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All events subject to change.