There were somber, nostalgic and comedic goodbyes passing between the salty FisherPoets Sunday at the Astoria Event Center. More than 80 of them had traveled to Astoria from Oregon, 10 other U.S. states, British Columbia and Finland for the 18th annual FisherPoets, a celebration of commercial fishing and its stories.

“I want to thank everybody personally,” said Gearhart’s Jay Speakman, part of a core group of volunteers organizing the FisherPoets Gathering, along with Jon Broderick of Cannon Beach. “Because like I said the first night … you guys all get a crew share, but the rest of us that get to stay here, we get to split the boat’s share, and that’s the bigger share.

“We get a big payback from this, and we sure appreciate it when everybody comes. You go through as much trouble as we do to get here, and it doesn’t seem like a lot after we see how people enjoy this.”

FisherPoets venues across downtown Astoria, were packed to the gills Friday and Saturday.

Most of the FisherPoets came from the West Coast, including 29 from Washington, 19 from Alaska, 17 from Oregon and five each from British Columbia and California. One or two each traveled from Idaho, Hawaii, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Florida. The honor of this year’s farthest-flung FisherPoet, in a festival that last year attracted two BBC reporters, went to Jen Pickett, a fisherwoman of two decades in Alaska living in Jyväskylä, Finland.

“What brings me back here is the community here and FisherPoets,” Pickett said, who endured a daylong commute and 10 hours time difference for the reunion. “It’s just something I need to do, to come back here and see all my friends and hear their stories, and their poems and songs. And I can relate to them so much. It’s a little bit like coming home. I feel like a salmon that has found my stream.”

Pickett, a freelance writer and poet, runs a blog at http://pickfishtales.blogspot.com, sharing her stories of being a fisherwoman in Alaska. She is also studying for a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Jyväskylä.

“And, not surprising, I’m studying work passion and ‘workaholism,’” said Pickett. “So, you can take the girl out of the fishing, but I don’t think you can take the fishing out of the girl.”

Several FisherPoets came out of Clatsop County, including Broderick, his son Max, Speakman and Seaside resident Austin Tomlinson. Astoria turned out Nancy Cook, a writing instructor at Clatsop Community College and formerly a fisheries observer and a roe technician on the Bering Sea; folklorist, historian, songwriter and Salmon for All member Hobe Kytr; and Dave Densmore, a lifetime commercial fisher from Alaska.

Each FisherPoet took the stage Sunday to say goodbye in their own way, whether it be a poem, a song or thank you to the audiences.

Pickett shared some choice radio dispatches by fisherman on the water during her time in Alaska. Ron McDaniel, the cowboy from northwest Arkansas, shared a poem about the fearful experience of a prostate exam. Lloyd Montgomery from Wasila, Alaska, ended his performances at FisherPoets with a monologued, multi-act play about hunting caribou and whale, playing parts as both a Native Alaskan playing drums and a tusk, and an aborigine playing a didgeridoo.

“Whenever I decide to leave, I’ll be the one who has the say, not some jumped-up Johnny-come-lately that may think I’m in his way,” said Densmore in “Old Sea Story,” his closing poem for FisherPoets. “And remember before you show disrespect to someone with more years than you, that same spot in the trail is waiting there for you.”

Hand-in-hand with the spoken word art and hands-on workshops of FisherPoets was advocacy for the environment, and by extension commercial fishing, with presentations on ocean acidification and potential and current threats to the health of the Columbia River.

At the Columbian Theater, in the documentary ”The Breach,” filmmaker Mark Titus explored the effects of pollution, salmon hatcheries and a the proposed Pebble copper mine on wild runs from Johnson Creek, Portland, to Bristol Bay, Alaska. “In the Same Boat,” by Alaska gillnetter Elijah Lawson, promoted the sustainability of the Bristol Bay fishery.

FisherPoets has been covered by The New York Times and radio specials on the BBC Radio 4. FisherPoet Pat Dixon has compiled a collection of FisherPoetry at www.inthetote.com.

Last summer, Dixon released “Anchored in Deep Water: The Fisherpoets Anthology,” a seven-book set with material from 40 American, Canadian and Japanese FisherPoets. The separate books or the set can be purchased at www.inthetote.com, at the Cannon Beach Book Co. or at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.