Oregon Lawmakers Cut $640,000 Fish Scrap Upcycling Program From State Budget

A $640,000 investment in turning fish-processing scraps into sellable products got quietly gutted when Oregon lawmakers stripped the line item from House Bill 4086 to help balance the state budget, leaving coastal fishing communities without state support for a program its backers said could have reshaped how Oregon values its own seafood harvest.

Initial drafts of HB 4086 directed that $640,000 to the Oregon Coast Visitors Association specifically to develop companies capable of upcycling fish-processing byproducts into usable goods, a concept operating under the banner of "100% Fish" programs. The model already exists at a commercial scale on the Oregon coast. Local Ocean Seafood runs a 100% Fish program that converts processing scraps into fish-skin dog treats, bone broth, fish cookies, fish jerky, and fish sausages, demonstrating that the raw material is there and the market is real. The state funding was meant to help more operations like that get off the ground.

The cut came down as part of broader spending reductions lawmakers pursued to close a budget gap. No alternative funding mechanism was identified in the bill, and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association lost its designated role as program administrator along with the appropriation.

The economic argument for the program centers on a problem that anyone who has fished Oregon waters or sold into commercial channels can recognize: most of what gets landed doesn't stay in Oregon. "If the most valuable piece of the fish is not even the food portion, and we're exporting most of the seafood we land, then we're not only missing the value from the food portion, but also we're giving away the most valuable part of the fish every year," said Hinz. "And I think that is a huge economic loss for the state of Oregon and for local businesses." Compounding the problem, the collection and assessment of blue industry data is lacking, which impedes the kind of strategic and tactical planning that could make a program like this viable at scale.

Despite the legislative failure, the Oregon Ocean Cluster has committed to developing and supporting 100% Fish programs without state funding this session. The cluster has not outlined a specific timeline or replacement funding source, but the vow keeps the concept alive at a moment when Oregon's budget constraints have effectively shelved the one formal mechanism the Legislature had considered.

For anyone in the commercial or charter side of the Oregon tuna and groundfish fishery, the implications go beyond processing economics. When the highest-value parts of a landed fish leave the state as raw export, the multiplier effect of processing, value-added production, and local sales never materializes. The 100% Fish model was a direct attempt to capture that value. The question now is whether a private-sector push from the Oregon Ocean Cluster can do what $640,000 in public funding was supposed to start.