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skybytch

My Alaska Adventure (long, with pics)

By skybytch, in The Bonfire

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skybytch    273

skybytch
My Xtratuff boots are scuffed up and stained with fish scum. The crotch of my olive green rain pants hangs nearly to my knees. Their suspenders proclaim their maker in capital letters - GRUNDENS. The tops of a pair of blue vinyl gloves go up the sleeves of my sweatshirt. Headphones cover the fleece hat. The Helly Hansen rain jacket sits on the engine cover, just in case. I'm leaning over the side of the skiff, 1/4 mile away from the boat in the middle of the Valdez Narrows, trying to keep my balance as I'm repeatedly pushing the end of an 8 foot long tube of metal into the water.

Those pukers in the sport charter boat going by are looking at me. Little do they know I'm as much of a tourist as they are.

It was the experience of a lifetime. Something I never thought I'd do, a look into a world that was totally foreign to me. The kind of vacation that can't be arranged by a travel agent with all the details handled by a tour company. Spending time as a guest on a purse seiner in the Prince William Sound requires knowing someone. Lucky for me, I was in the right place at the right time and knew the right someone.

Because of a very generous injured friend (I love you Jim!), I got to spend the last week with the skipper and crew of the F/V Kendal, a 40-something foot commercial fishing boat. After flying from Sacramento to Seattle and then Seattle to Anchorage, the adventure really began when I climbed into a Dash 8 turboprop plane for the hop to Valdez. I was really hoping to fly on one of the Otters that were also on the ramp, but apparently the Valdez run usually requires a few more seats.

Couldn't tell on the flight I was on; there were only 10 of us onboard. The view from the window seat was awesome - once we left the greater Anchorage area it was jagged snowcapped mountains poking up through the overcast. Not a place I'd want to crash an airplane - which, since my skydiver ears are tuned to the sound of turboprops while climbing, I was slightly concerned about as the pilot cut back the power when we reached cruise altitude.

Monty and Kendal (both skydivers; Monty is the skipper and Kendal is his daughter, skiff "man" and a good friend of mine) came to meet me at the airport. Met the rest of the crew - George from the Mojave Desert, whose jobs include stacking bouys and cooking, and Michael T from the Kenai Peninsula, whose jobs include stacking the lead line, dishes and some mechanical stuff. After showing me how the head works and introducing me to the crewman's best friend (my bunk or rack;)), we spent the evening and into the night (midnight? It's not dark, how can it be midnight??!??!) drinking and bullshitting.

Monday we pulled out of port in the early afternoon to go get in line for the "opening" Tuesday morning. After an hour of so of motoring along the Valdez Arm we dropped anchor near several other boats. Monday evening was spent enjoying the view and eating. Crews on fishing boats do a lot of eating. The crew on the Kendal eat very well since George is a chef in real life.

My first day of fishing started early. No alarm clock needed; the skipper is up first and once he starts the main feet start hitting the deck. Strong hot coffee and thick, filling oatmeal make the early hour more tolerable. Shortly after 8 am everyone was geared up, Kendal was in the skiff and it was on - time to set the net.

The net - all 1/4 mile of it - starts out piled on the deck of the boat, attached to the skiff at one end and the boat at the other. Once the skiff is cut loose from the boat it heads for the shore, pulling the net off the deck as it goes. After all of the net is out, the boat drives up the current and slightly in towards the skiff. Once the net has been in the water for 20 minutes, the boat and and the skiff drive toward each other to make a big (a very big) loop. The skiff comes alongside the boat and hands off that end of the net, then it sneaks around the back of the boat and under the line, picks up another line (bridle) and drives out perpendicular to the boat to keep it in place while the crew brings the net aboard - at this point the boat is idling and the skipper is on deck working the winch.

The net (also known as a purse seine) has a line with bouys on it at the top and two lines at the bottom. One line on the botton is filled with lead - thus the name "lead line." The other line is called the purse line - it runs through metal hoops on the bottom of the net. After the skiff drops off the other end of the net, the purse line is attached to the winch and brought in - this is what closes off the bottom of the net and keeps the fishies from swimming away.

As the purse line comes in, the winch is hauling up the top line. One crew member is underneath it, stacking the net and bouys, while the other continues to "plunge" - plunging involves that 8 foot long metal pole I was talking about earlier. At the end of the pole is what looks much like a toilet plunger - pushing it into the water makes bubbles that scare the fish back toward the net. After about half the net is back on board the purse line is completely in as well - at this point they bring out a big hook, grab the metal hoops and pull the bottom of the net up. Then the bouy guy goes back to stacking bouys and the plunging guy starts stacking the bottom of the net.

The net catches more than just the fish we want to catch - it also catches lots of jellyfish, which ride up the net, through the winch and then fall down on the heads of the guys stacking the net. You know it's going to be a good haul - or a good "set" in fisherspeak - when salmon are coming up stuck in the net along with the jellys.

Eventually almost all of the net is onboard and the fish, which are still in the part of the net that's in the water, start flopping around trying vainly to escape. When they have a big set, the skiff will come around to the opposite side of the boat and provide counterbalance while the load is "rolled" onto the deck.

Watching a big set roll onto the deck and into the hold is quite a sight. It's even better when you're standing on the deck and the fish are flopping around at your feet! The crew gets the last of the net stowed and then puts whatever fish didn't go directly to the hold in - by kicking 'em or picking them up and tossing them. The skipper goes back up to the cabin and drives to the next spot and the process starts again. They'll do this over and over for 12 hours straight. Then we found the "tender," who came over and pumped 40,000+ pounds of fish out of our hold.

Wednesday was spent anchored up in the narrows again. The boats that fish everyday in this area are working what is called "cost recovery" for the hatchery - the fish a day for themselves (selling at full price - about 13 cents a pound right now) and then a day for the hatchery (selling at less than full price so the hatchery can make some money for improvements, etc). The hatchery in Valdez was started by the fishermen years ago.

Thursday was a long day - twelve hours of fishing, small set after small set right up until the last set of the day when we caught TWENTY TWO THOUSAND POUNDS!!! After having the tender pump 17,000 pounds directly out of the net, they rolled the rest into the hold and the tender pumped them out of there. Total for the day? 53,000 pounds! That's a lot of fucking fish. But the day wasn't over yet - now we had to find a different tender to pick up and swap out a different net. It was 1 am before that was done and we were headed back to port, 3 am before we were tied up to a dock and everyone could crash out.

Everybody slept in Friday morning. Late in the afternoon some guys from another boat came back and invited us to go play soccer in town. An interesting game - one guy wearing his Xtratuff boots, several people playing barefoot. I played some mean defense. :D And then we got all fuckered up. Fisherfolk can drink. I represented skydiver drinkers well.

Saturday and Sunday were recovery days - the fishery was closed. Since I was flying out on Monday and they would be fishing I spent Sunday night in a motel in town, enjoying a real bed and a tub full of hot water.

I'm gonna remember this trip for the rest of my life. B|

Pics -

007 - George and Michael T stacking the net
012 - fish in the net ready to be rolled on deck
014 - the roll
015 - more roll
024 - Kendal in the skiff

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MarkM    0

MarkM
Quote

Not a place I'd want to crash an airplane - which, since my skydiver ears are tuned to the sound of turboprops while climbing, I was slightly concerned about as the pilot cut back the power when we reached cruise altitude.



Did you yell "Door!" when he cut the power?

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Sebazz1    2

Sebazz1
Lisa,

That is so fa-king cool. Way to represent for the jumpers after hours;) I know you would have been one of my first picks! Most people wouldn't think that was fun what you did but man what an experience! Sweetness absolutely awesome.

Fak that's cool!

-Seb

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livendive    8

livendive
Seining is for pussies. TWELVE HOUR DAYS??! :S:D Cool pics though. ;) I long-lined a couple seasons out of Cordova, a little south of Valdez. While I learned to drink as a sailor, I perfected the art as a commercial fisherman and later as a skydiver. B|

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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livendive    8

livendive
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Monty long-lined for awhile. He also fished off Kodiak for awhile.

Which is why he now seines in the Sound. :ph34r:



I once had the choice of spending October/November spearfishing for swordfish in Mexico or long-lining halibut in Russia. I figured that the more it sucks, the more money you'll make so I chose Siberia. I did 35 on, 5 off for 51 days in icing, ridiculously stormy conditions, and cleared $27k after expenses. My buddy chose Mexico and made $48k in approximately the same timespan. He got to spend about half his nights in town enjoying plenty of, uh, hospitality. He got to drink most days and every night, and he enjoyed warmth, sunshine, and calm seas the whole time. Obviously my theory was fatally flawed. :$B|:D

Fishing is frequently a hard life, and sometimes brutally unforgiving, but it's rewarding and beautiful in ways that most can't understand. I like the stability of my income now, but I miss the beauty and ferocity of the sea, the tranquility of cruising inland, and the intangibles that I can't explain any better than I can skydiving. :SB|

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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SpeedRacer    1

SpeedRacer
That is SO cool! I'm sitting here at work in this stupid little cubical looking at those pics & feeling jealous as hell.

I wanna be a fisherman now.
:(

I went to Alaska (Juneau, Haines, Skagway)last summer & it rocked. Had some great seafood there, thanks to those guys.B|
Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

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