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!
Less Thinking, More Doing 