Fishermen, farmers suffer alike

Greg Ambiel and John Lupul live about 100 miles apart. One earns his living fishing salmon. The other owns a small tomato sales company. But in many ways their stories are one.

In this summer of discontent marked by skyrocketing fuel prices, home foreclosures, bank failures and sagging stock markets, both men worry like all Americans. But for Ambiel and Lupul, a pair of economic curses appeared out of nowhere to threaten their livelihoods.

For the first time in history, the federal government has shut down the West Coast's ocean salmon season — putting Ambiel's life and work on hold — after scientists detected a dramatic drop in the number of adult Chinook returning to the Sacramento River to spawn.

Lupul, 35, is suffering from the aftermath of a nationwide salmonella outbreak — initially linked to tomatoes — that has already resulted in losses of more than $100 million nationwide.

Perhaps the cruelest part of their story is that salmon fishermen and tomato farmers both expected banner years.

It's mid-July, and Ambiel, a 40-year-old Scotts Valley resident, should be fishing. But his 48-foot salmon troller — the Tasu — is docked at Pillar Point, north of Half Moon Bay.

When he steps onto the stilled, wooden boat, the Santa Cruz County native can still conjure the rush of chasing salmon through the deep canyons of the Monterey Bay and the chilly waters off the Farallon Islands and Fort Bragg. He still imagines the saltwater spraying his face — and feels the eternal lure of the sea.