The town and harbor of Garibaldi on Tillamook Bay, Oregon

Garibaldi, the working port at the mouth of Tillamook Bay

ByJoel Koskinen

Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Garibaldi is a small city of fewer than a thousand people near the mouth of Tillamook Bay, and most of what happens there involves boats. The Port of Garibaldi runs a marina and docks used by commercial crab and fishing boats, charter operators and recreational anglers who cross the Tillamook Bar into the ocean.

The town grew around a lumber mill and the fishing trade, and the mill’s old smokestack still stands near the waterfront. A Coast Guard station has operated here since the 1930s, its rescue crews working one of the more dangerous bar crossings on the coast.

What the port supports

Dungeness crab is the main commercial catch for many local boats, with the season usually opening in December. Charter companies take visitors out for bottom fish, salmon, halibut and crab from spring through fall, and they fill the town’s motels and RV parks in summer. Fish buyers and processors along the waterfront handle part of the catch, and several restaurants serve it a few steps from where it comes in.

Garibaldi also has the Garibaldi Museum, focused on Captain Robert Gray and the early maritime history of the area, and the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, which runs excursion trains along the bay.

The challenges

Small ports depend on dredging to keep channels and bar crossings safe, and federal dredging money has been inconsistent for years. Fishing seasons are increasingly shaped by events beyond the bay: domoic acid closures, delays caused by whale entanglement rules and shifts in ocean conditions. Each change affects not only fishermen but also the fuel dock, ice house, gear suppliers and the cafe where crews eat breakfast.

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