Newport Fishermen’s Wives, Lincoln County go to federal court Friday trying to stop Coast Guard helicopter’s move

By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle

Kristi Noem and the U.S. Coast Guard, meet the Newport Fishermen’s Wives.

The small but influential nonprofit that works to keep Newport’s fishing crews safe and comforts families when they are lost at sea, filed suit in U.S. District Court on Friday to try to force the return of a Coast Guard helicopter to Newport, where for decades it has been helping rescue fishermen, locals and tourists.

Friday’s lawsuit names the Coast Guard and U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem.

The lawsuit, joined by Lincoln County, was accompanied by a 15-page motion seeking a temporary restraining order to bring the rescue helicopter back from North Bend, where it was quietly moved last month.

The lawsuit – and what local, state and federal politicians and advocacy groups have been arguing for weeks – says moving the helicopter 90 miles and 30-60 minutes south represents a danger to Newport’s fishing fleet, the largest on the Oregon coast. While there are Coast Guard lifeboat stations on Yaquina Bay in Newport, in Depoe Bay and on the Siuslaw River in Florence, the closest air stations are in North Bend and Astoria.

“Incredibly, the Coast Guard has undertaken this reckless stripping of Newport’s critical maritime safety net in total silence,” said the motion by the nonprofit’s attorneys seeking a temporary injunction. “The government failed to make necessary life-safety impact determinations to support its decision. It failed to give public notice. It failed to take public comment. It failed to hold public meetings. And it failed to notify Oregon’s congressional representatives and the appropriate congressional committees.”

The motion said each of the five “transgressions” are required by a 2014 federal law “to prevent precisely the conduct at issue, and defendants have disregarded them entirely.”

“Simply put, defendants have gutted Newport’s mission-critical air resources under the figurative (if not literal) cover of darkness,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants’ illegal closure of the Newport Air Facility wantonly endangers the lives of Newport’s commercial fishermen, recreational boaters, fishermen, surfers, swimmers, and beachgoers.”

Attempts by Newport Fishermen’s Wives leaders to find out why the helicopter was moved as been met with silence from normally cooperative local Coast Guard commanders, the motion said, instead “directing community leaders to the department’s public relations hotline.”

The helicopter’s departure coincides with attempts by a Texas company to lease land adjacent to the Coast Guard’s property at the Newport airport to potentially create an immigration detention center, the Lincoln Chronicle has reported. Job postings for detention officers and medical staff to be based in Newport, inquiries about septic, water and disposal services and continued inquiries for land suggest the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking to build a detention facility.

The lawsuit says it is urgent that the helicopter be returned prior to the expected mid-December start of the commercial Dungeness crab season.

“The weather, as is common this time of year, may be foul and life-threatening,” the lawsuit said. “In these conditions, even a well maintained and crewed vessel is susceptible to capsizing, particularly while crossing the treacherous Yaquina Bay bar. If a mayday event were to occur — as has happened many times in the recent past — the absence of nearby Coast Guard air rescue support capable of mustering an immediate response could easily be the difference between a lifesaving rescue and a body recovery mission.”

The lawsuit says the helicopter should be returned quickly because the Dungeness season is a “derby” fishery, which “places enormous economic pressure on fishermen to head to sea even in extremely rough conditions that are common off the Oregon coast during this time of year.”

It cited the 1985 sinking of the F/V Lasseigne 20 miles west of Newport, resulting in the loss of three crewmen when Coast Guard helicopters were 70 and 95 miles away.

“In response to this incident and other similar tragedies, Congress passed and President Reagan signed appropriations for the establishment of the Coast Guard’s Newport Air Facility,” the lawsuit said.

The Obama Administration sought to close the Newport air facility in 2014, promoting a similar challenge by the Newport Fishermen’s Wives and the county. Congress stepped in to stop the closure, the lawsuit said, and then strengthened the notice and process requirements that must come before closing or “downgrading of capabilities of any Coast Guard air facility.”

Commissioners join lawsuit

On Friday, Lincoln County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution urging the U.S. Coast Guard to reverse its decision to relocate its rescue helicopter from the Newport air station.

Originally, an executive session was planned for the online meeting but Commissioner Walter Chuck advocated for all the conversations to be discussed in open session because the topic was so serious.

“I’m getting an overwhelming sense of deja vu,” said Commissioner Claire Hall. “This is the exact resolution we adopted in 2014 and the county then joined with the city, the port, other interested parties in this legal action initiated by the Fisherman’s Wives … I’m glad we’re moving forward once again, as with the united front.”

The commissioners also made a motion indicating they would be joining the potential federal lawsuit.

Members of Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Newport’s mayor attended the meeting and spoke during public comment.

Hailing from a fourth-generation fishing family, Newport Fisherman’s Wives member Taunette Dixon said she has seen first-hand what the rescue helicopter can do. Being stationed at North Bend is too far away for precious minutes that matter when considering hypothermia, she said.

Over the past 10 years there have been 13 major fishing vessel incidents and 12 fatalities of Newport-based vessels or crew, Dixon told the Lincoln Chronicle this week, and not having a Coast Guard helicopter in Newport further increases the risks to safety.

“If they are going to do something this extreme they at least owe it to the community to communicate and tell our fishermen why their lives are being put at risk,” Dixon said.

Others weigh in

• Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced late Friday that the state would file its own federal lawsuit Monday to try to stop the helicopter’s move to North Bend. Rayfield said Friday’s action reflects a united front among state, county, and community partners. “Newport remembers what happened in 2014, and the law has only gotten clearer since then,” Rayfield said. “The Coast Guard plays an irreplaceable role in coastal safety. If federal officials want to change that footprint, they must follow the law. Sneaking a helicopter out in the middle of the night is not following the law.”
• Sen. Ron Wyden is holding a town hall at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Newport High School gym where he said he plans to talk about the helicopter’s removal and potential immigration detention center.
• Wyden, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. sent a letter to acting Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin E. Lunday “demanding immediate answers” about the decision to move the helicopter away from Newport. Dozens of similar letters from the three Oregon Democrats since the Trump administration took office January have been fruitless.
• Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, issued a news release Friday to say he had sent Noem a letter asking “to, at least, temporarily redeploy one MH-65 and aircrew to Newport no later than Dec. 1, 2025, and to conduct a longer-term review of permanently restoring rotary-wing coverage to the central coast.”

• Shayla Escudero of the Lincoln Chronicle contributed to this report.
• Quinton Smith is the editor of Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]

To read the lawsuit filed by the Newport Fishermen’s Wives go here

To read the motion for a temporary injunction, go here