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Port Orford is located on the rugged south coast of Oregon, an area rich in rocky kelp forest habitat highly suitable for many fish species and for Dungeness crab.

Port Orford is home to a thriving small boat commercial fishing fleet of around 50 vessels, each representing a local small business. The hard-working commercial fleet and related businesses make up 30% of the local workforce of this small industrious town of 1,100. While the fleet is productive and generates significant economic activity, most of the seafood landed (the portion of seafood caught and brought ashore) is loaded into trucks and shipped elsewhere for processing, taking with it a good deal of potential value-added profits and job opportunities.  

The Port has embarked on an ambitious redevelopment program to access this value-added potential and increase the availability of living-wage jobs.  At the core of this program is the Port Orford Seafood Hub. The hub will co-locate existing fresh and live seafood buyers, aquaculture businesses, maritime researchers, education labs, dive facilities, a cooperative seafood market, community commercial scale kitchen, cold storage, packing and shipping facilities, and small business incubator spaces.

Port Orford is also unique, as it is one of only two "dolly docks" in the U.S. where fishing vessels are dry docked and lifted in and out of the water each day by large industrial cranes. The new seafood hub will promote tourism with the ability for people to view this process while taking in the scenic views of the Oregon coast.

Port Orford has engaged the services of the USDA Wholesale Markets and Facility Design team to advance the design of the Port Orford Seafood Hub to promote awareness in the community, and to advance the project with funders and decisions makers. l bluffs