COOS BAY — It’s all about real estate.

OK, maybe it’s not ALL about real estate, but to the hundreds of commercial crab fishermen in Oregon — and those from Washington and California who also fish Oregon waters — protecting valuable crab grounds is at the top of the list when it comes to considering where to place possibly hundreds of wave energy devices.

Fisherman Bob Eder, from Newport, and a member of the Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy, addressed that issue Friday, during the second of a two-day wave energy conference held at The Mill-Casino Convention Center.

The event, hosted by the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, brought professionals from around the world involved in the hydrokinetic industry — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s term for the emerging wave, current and tidal power industry — to Coos Bay. A series of seminars examined emerging technology, the economic benefits of the technology, community impacts, and more.

Fishermen Involved started out as a way for fishers to organize and have a greater say in where wave energy devices would be placed in the ocean. So far, Eder said, the group has negotiated areas to be used by Oregon State University and Finavera Renewables for testing wave energy buoys. But just because fishermen were willing to negotiate doesn’t mean they consider test buoy areas unproductive.

Not in the least.

“This is not undesirable crab ground,” Eder said.

What some wave energy developers don’t realize, fishermen say, is that every square inch of sandy ocean bottom off Oregon is valuable crab fishing ground. It just so happens that the same areas Dungeness crabbers place their pots are the same ones energy companies value for buoy placement.

Hence the fight over real estate.

Fishermen, though, also see the value in developing renewable energy sources. That’s why, Eder said, Newport area crabbers were willing to work with OSU and Finavera.

Fishermen Involved also developed a document that outlines potential, expected buoy vs. fishing vessel conflicts and provides alternative solutions beneficial to both wave energy companies and the fishing fleet.

Dungeness crab has become an Oregon icon, Eder said, but it hasn’t always been that way.

Salmon reigned as Oregon’s icon for years. The federal government, and the same agency that is responsible for permitting the areas for wave energy parks, doesn’t carry a perfect record regarding balancing dams and the needs of salmon, Eder said.

You begin to see why the fishing industry is concerned, he said.

“We fishermen are tied so closely to the marine ecosystem we see ourselves as part of it,” Eder said.

Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission Executive Director and Chairman of Southern Oregon Ocean Resource Coalition Nick Furman echoed some of Eder’s comments during his presentation.

“We are not opposed to the development of wave energy,” Furman said.

But three things are of utmost importance: How the process moves forward, where the buoys are sited, and who benefits. Or, conversely, who loses.

Fishermen must be considered in the process, Furman said, and because of the way the FERC process works, that doesn’t always happen.

Because anyone can file for a FERC permit, a permit that gives the permittee the right to study an area for the feasibility of placing a wave energy buoy array, there is no bargaining with fishermen from the get-go.

Traditional crabbing grounds are the industry’s ace in the hole. That is, until the fishermen came up against what Furman called an arcane FERC process.

“It took, from the industry’s perspective, the most important bargaining chip off the table,” Furman said.

In the end, Eder and Furman said, the most important message regarding community impacts is to take into account fishing tradition and the fishermen who have covered the same grounds for years.

“Be respectful of history,” Furman said.