Finally, some pictures of my trip in chronological order:
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Well it is over. Our season is done.
Last week of fishing was rough. 24 hour openings are brutal. There was no sleep, only naps. 3 hour naps was the most one could get of continuous sleep. The only consolation was not setting or pulling in the nets. Every few hours, we would need to check if the nets switched right with the tide or pick fish off the net. This season, Rollie, the boss decided to try something differnet in the Ugashik area. It was a really rough start, lots of trial and error. We had things break left and right. Our 3 am night picks became 5-6 hour endeavors because we would find our nets broken. We spent most of our time fixing things instead of fishing. This past week, we finally got everything together. Things were running smoothly. We were happy that we could actually start enjoying fishing rather than worry about what would break next.
With 24 hour openings means a lot of night fishing. At night, you are more likely to encounter bears. Fortunately, we didn’t see any bears, just a lot of bear scat and tracks. So we know they are wandering around the village. Although it would be terrifying to see a bear, I still want to see one, even a dead one. I had the opportunity to see a dead brown bear a couple weeks ago. I had heard that someone shot and killed one the previous night so I was on the hunt to find the body. Too bad, I didn’t get to see it. I just found the blood left there by the gunshot wound. If you kill a bear, you need to remove the carcass relatively quickly so not to attract other animals. I know there are other bears around so it is a matter of time until I see one. Hopefully I’ll see the, at a distance or when I’m in a car.
Fishing is still open but the tenders have left so there is no one to sell the fish to. We’re left to fish for salmon that I will bring back home. I am learning how to filet them so if you receive a vacuum pack filet of some fresh, wild, Alaskan red and king salmon that looks butchered, chances are good that I filleted that fish. Sorry.
Now it is time to enjoy the last week and a half that I am here. I hope to see bears, moose, and more of Alaska.
Oh yeah, we caught roughly 50,000 pounds for the season. Slow season but I think we caught more per site than anyone else in the village so I can’t complain.
What exactly am I doing in Alaska?
I’m commercial fishing. To be more specific, I am set netting.
Before coming to Alaska, my idea of commercial fishing was pulling a net around in the water. I didn’t realize how many different kinds of fishing there are. There’s saning, drifting, long lining, and set netting. I’m sure there are other kinds but these were discussed the most. What I’m doing in Ugashik is set netting.
Basically set netting is pulling out a net into the water from land. So there is no boat involved with setting the net. There are a lot of regulations as to how far and when you can set your net. My day revolves around announcements made the day before. For example, today the openings was at 630 am for 10 hours. So the earliest time we can put the nets into the water today was at 630 am and it has to be out of water by 4:30 pm. The only times we are allowed to fish is based off these openings.
Openings can be from 8 to 24 hours so there is potential to work around the clock. How they decide these openings is based on statistics reviewed by the regulators. They look at the amount of fish caught and escapement. Every season they have a target amount for each of the categories.
After we set the nets, we let them sit there for a few hours before we pick them. We would get in our boats and move down the net while picking the fish out of the net. Most of the fish that we catch are caught on the flood of the tide. So far this season has been slow and the season is already almost over. We’re around 30-40 thousand pounds. After we pick the net and pull in the nets. We transfer the fish on to the Alpha 1 and deliver the fish to the tenders/processors. These people buy the fish from the fisherman. They’ll clean and process the fish.
I can’t really say that there is a typical day. Everyday we start and stop at a new time and have different problems. I would say that we work an average of about 12 hrs on the days we fish. The past few days have started really early. We woke up at 330 am and 430 am to set the nets. Besides starting early, we have really late nights as well. We would have a closing time of 2 am and then have to deliver the fish which takes hours. Some of us would finish our days at 6-8 am.
There is only 10 more days in the season and many people have finished for the season. We were off tomorrow but fishing will be open for 24 hrs for the remainder of the season starting Tuesday at 9 am.
Hoping to finish with a 100,000 pound season.
Wish us luck!
The first week in Ugashik, Alaska have been eventful and a huge learning curve. One of the main things I learned was how dangerous rope is.
The first thing that happened to me was get hit by rope. Twice. The current pulls the net so the rope snaps back hitting me in the neck then again in the side of the head a few minutes later. The most dangerous thing that happened was when we were putting the line into a roller. A roller is something that is used to help you move up and down a line. We put the line in there causing a lot of tension. The line slipped out of the roller, pushing me overboard. Everything is fine. I got out of the water quickly but now I can say that I fell in the Bering Sea.
It has been hard work since I’ve been here and should get harder. I have new respect for fisherman. It is not easy. Before we start each day, we need to know when the day “opens”. What that means is the authorities tell us what time and how long we can fish for. They keep count of how many salmon make it up stream and need to hit a quota. The openings have been really early this past week. They have been 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30 openings with 8-10 hour days. These are the times we’re allowed to put the nets in the water so we prepare beforehand.
Fishing has been decent for early in the season. we been averaging around 1400 pounds a day. When we are in the middle of the season, we should be doing 10-20 thousand pounds with fishing open 24 hours. This means working around the clock, tons of fish, and possible encounters with bears.
I have really enjoyed what I’ve done and learned this past week. I’ve done a lot of things I’ve never done before and seen a lot more I’ve never seen before. There will be lots more new and different experiences to come.
The idea of me being a fisherman did not cross my mind until a month ago. I had found out that a few of my friends were going to Ugashik to work for a cannery. It has never really crossed my mind that I wanted to work for a cannery but knowing they were going made it easy to decide to join them there.
Initially, I was just going to process the fish. This was fine by me as I wanted to do something completely different than I’m used to but a sudden change of events has put me on the boat. This was just the adventure I have been looking for with a bonus of it being in Alaska.
The trip here took roughly 24 hours, all of which was daylight. I went from Atlanta to Denver to Seattle to Anchorage. I slept at the Anchorage airport among many other people. Almost all benches and seats were taken up by people sleeping. From there I took a small plane King Salmon. At King Salmon, I took an even smaller plane to Pilot Point and Ugashik. This plane fit me, the pilot, and another passenger plus our bags. Because there are so few flights to Pilot Point and Ugashik, the plane carried each town’s mail. The flights from Seattle to Ugashik were gorgeous. It’s not like anything I’ve seen before. The mountains, volcanoes, rivers/streams, bays, and wetlands.
Finally, after six flights, I arrive in Ugashik. This place is tiny. The whole town is one mile long. The population per the census 2010 was 12. I said my hellos and was put in rain gear. I jumped in the boat and helped put our nets out. After we finished, I could finally settle into my new surroundings. We had to wait for the nets to do its job. After dinner, we went to collect the fish from the nets. It is still a little early in the season so the catch was not large.
So here I am now. Relaxing at 10pm. Still bright outside and ready to pass out but, we still got to go pull the nets in.
By the way, I’ll fill in the posts with pictures when I have a chance, the internetz is limited here. I can only post pictures between 1230 am and 530 am. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay awake that late tonight.
Less Thinking, More Doing 