Author: EJ

The Prince William Sound salmon fishery is broken up into multiple districts and types of fishing methods. The fisheries are limited entry, meaning that a person must own a permit card in order to harvest and sell their fish.

My family own a drift gillnet permit card. This style of fishing involves a gillnet 900 ft in length that is not connected to the shoreline. The other type of gillnet fishing is set gillnet fishing and requires a person to own set gillnet permit. This type of gillnetting uses the shore to anchor a net in place, essentially the opposite of drift gillnetting.

Seining is the other main method used. It is extremely effective and lucrative, but the cost of owning an operation is much higher than that of a gillnet operation. Also, seining often takes place in different parts of Prince William Sound.

Focusing on drift gillnetting, there are three main districts fished and one that alternates between drift gillnet and seining, depending on how many fish each fleet catches. This is done in order to keep the flow of money balanced between the fleets. Between these districts, all five species of Pacific salmon are harvested.

This map depicts all of the fishing districts in Prince William Sound. Below are the ones that are frequently used by drift gillnetters.

Copper River District:

Location: Southeastern Prince William Sound and Northeastern Gulf of Alaska

Types of Salmon: Sockeye, Chinook (also caught: Chum, Coho)

Run Timing: Mid May-July

The Copper River district is the backbone of our fishery. Famous for its rich and flavorful wild Copper River sockeye, this was the original fishery that provided year after year for fisherman. There is no higher quality salmon in the world than Copper River Salmon

 

Eshamy District:

Location: Western Prince WIlliam Sound

Types of Salmon: Sockeye, Pink (also caught: Chum, Coho, Chinook)

Run Timimg: June & July

The Eshamy District is tricky. Located in weather worn western Prince William Sound, the rockpiles and shoreline are difficult to navigate. However, it can pay off. 3,000 lbs sets of sockeye salmon are common, giving a person a quick $6,000 to start the day. These fish are raised and imprinted in a hatchery before being released into the ocean, returning four years later for harvest. This district is often used to start, as once the fish are caught, the fishing may not be good until the next fishing period. It is a place to hit a home run, but is also very easy to strike out.

 

Coghill District:
Location: Northwestern Prince William Sound

Types of Salmon: Chum, Sockeye, Pink, Coho (also caught: Chinook)

Run Timing: June & July: Chum/Sockeye. July-September: Pink/Coho

The Coghill district is known to be steady. It started as a run of wild sockeye to the coghill river, but later a hatchery was put in to accomdate chum salmon as well. It seems year after year to be a way to exchange hard work for a good pay check. Not usually exciting, but there are some times when 20,000 lbs of salmon can be caught. If nothing else is working, the Coghill district can usually provide something to work on.

 

Montague District:

Location: Montague Island

Types of Salmon: Chum (also caught: Sockeye, Pink, Coho, Chinook)

Run Timing: June & July

This district alternates between drift gillnet and seining depending on how much money each gear type is making. We have never fished here and I know very little about it. Often it is not as productive as other districts and could be shutting down soon.

A friend of ours that recently got out of the fishery had a boat named the “About Time”.

Thinking about the way this season has progressed, those are the only words that come to mind.

After feeling like wasting our time for a couple weeks, FINALLY, the fish have showed up.

Our last two fishing periods have begun with scooping 2,500 lbs of sockeye salmon out of western Prince William Sound’s Eshamy District, and leaving us with far more peace of mind. Not only do these scores pad the checkbook, they provide a sense of hope for what is soon to come. The run appears strong and just beginning to build. Sockeye salmon don’t often show up in this same density that they have early in this season. Another promising attribute of this run is the percentage of female fish being harvested. As a run of salmon progresses, the female percentage gradually increases. In the beginning, the percentage is low, usually between 20-30%. By the end, it reaches high into the 70-80% range. Based on samples of fish we’ve harvested, the female percentage is still around 30%, leaving plenty of room for improvement.  

The run of chum salmon that returns to NW Prince William Sound’s Coghill District also appears to be on the rise.

Two weeks ago I sat anchored up in the exact same spot I am now, staring out at the bay that harbors the hatchery which the fish return home to. Now I do the same, with one difference: There’s fish here. 

Some jump clear out of the water, others barely break the surface, showing their fins. Harbor seals chase the schools and sea lions do the same, just a little more effectively. They show off their catch, flipping it around in the air, flinging around scraps for the seagulls that swarm just overhead.

Its still not the scene we would expect to see at this point of the season, but it is a start; and despite data from previous years, a start may be what we should expect. After factoring in other traits of the run, it appears to simply be late. There are enormous schools of fish offshore in the district and stories of even larger ones in the middle of Prince William Sound, soon to arrive. 

Our only limiting factor now is the management and the area and time they give us to fish. Although these giant schools have entered the district, we are not allowed to fish on them because they need to be harvested for cost recovery. Cost recovery is what pays for the hatchery to continue operating, as the majority of the fish we catch were raised there until they are old enough to be released into the wild (this process produces fish that are just as fresh and wild as the small runs that return to the creeks throughout Prince William Sound). Although cost recovery has limited our area produced statistics that are promising as well. They are harvesting around 500,000 lbs per day and only 28% of these fish are female, suggesting that this is just the front end of a much-larger-than-predicted run.

By this time we are usually half done with our season, but this year reflects a different time frame. When you consider all of the factors besides just the date, most of our season may still be to come. 

Above: A seiner (left) and its large capacity tender boat (right) hunt for schools of fish to harvest in the cost recovery effort. Seining is a much more effective way of catching fish, so it is used to expedite the process of cost recovery. The tender pumps the fish off of the scene boat, tallying the number of pounds and allowing the seiner to keep fishing.

Above: Four bowpickers raft up and enjoy a day off across the bay.
 

Above: This raven paid me a visit halway through writing this entry. In different cultures, ravens vary in meanings from death to prosperity. Only the remainder of the season will tell which rings true.

​Got some new camera equipment to hopefully get some more interesting footage.

Just playing around with it a couple of days ago and got some cool close ups.

One word to desribe this season: Bleak. No fish, less than average weather, and no sign of anything turning around.

It is madening sitting out here and not making money, but there is no one to blame but the fish.

The runs of fish are far behind their expected counts for this time of year, leaving the biologists in charge with no choice but to drastically reduce the amount of fishing time given to the fleet.

We have now spent twice as much time anchored up than with our nets in the water.

Amidst the stress and concern, we find ourselves trying to keep from absolute boredom on a boat totaling less than 275 square feet; where less than half of that space is inside and out of the relentless rain.

At this time I would like to personally thank Netflix for making some of their content avaible for download and preventing me from falling into complete insanity.

Other activities include card games, eating, and sleeping. When we do get a break in the rain, taking our raft to shore to stretch the legs and go for a hike is a nice treat.

So much time is spent waiting, but eventually the waiting starts to feel like wasting; decreasing the urge to be here both physically and mentally.

At this point we hope. Hope the fish are just late, hope the season will still be strong, and hope that in the end we will turn a profit making it all worth while.

Only time will tell if our hopes are fulfilled, but for now we wait, patiently, passing the time.



Want to see a video of humpback whales feeding? Here you go!

 

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They were about 20 yards from the boat and feeding on salmon smolt around Esther Island.

Unfortunately, this is a major threat to our fishery. The whales eat the young salmon which reduces the number of fish returning in future years, increasingly weakening the salmon population as a whole.

Hopefully a solution to this problem can be reached soon!

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Ever had one of those days where you have everything planned out, and you were so excited for it, and just couldn’t wait, but then nothing actually goes according to plan?

Well that was our day.

It was the first day, the first opener we would be fishing (Openers are periods of time associated with a fishing district that are mandated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to properly conserve and protect the natural resource of wild Alaskan salmon. They usually come in time incriments of 12 hours ranging from 12 to 84 hours. More about this later). 

We woke up early, made coffee, and waited for 8 am, the time we could start fishing. We planned where we wanted to fish and when 8 o’clock hit, we began our work day.

We didn’t expect much action because of the lack of fish we had seen the last few days, but not catching fish was the only part of our day we expected that actually came true.

After moving from place to place, it was around noon we were picking our gear when something went wrong. The net wasn’t winding on properly. In short, we had blown a hydraulic hose.

We scrambled to find the cause of the problem and then contain it. Once it was under control we set the net back out so it would still catch fish while we were fixing the broken hose.

Big mistake.

See hydraulics make our job so much easier. They do the heavy lifting, pulling the net on board with a pull of a lever. By setting the net back out we were banking on the fact that we could fix the hose. 

About an hour and a half later we were pulling in our net by hand. All 900 water soaked feet of it. 

By the end, my arms felt like they were gonna fall off and we still weren’t any closer to fixing the hose. The replacement we had didn’t work and now we were faced with a trip home. This would mean missing about 30 hours of fishing time and more money spent on fuel for another trip. 

Thankfully, others fishing around us had parts that would work. With help from a a few of them, we slowly started piecing things together, literally. 

About 4 hours later (it was about 6 pm now) we had something to work with. 

Returning to the fishing grounds we were left with two things on our mind: A reminder that there are so many things that can go wrong, and a wonderment of what’s to come next.

Yesterday we hauled the boat to put it in the water. 4:00 a.m. wake up to avoid hauling in traffic, followed by an hour and a half trip to Whittier, Alaska; the little harbor town tucked into the mountains and also known as the gateway to Prince William Sound. 

I have to be completely honest, I hate Whittier.

They overcharge for everything, it’s almost always pouring rain, the police will pull you over for an hour for not having a front license plate mostly because they don’t have much else to do. 

But you can’t beat the convenience.

In using Whittier as our launch point, we cut our trip to the fishing grounds to less than a three hour trip.

But of course it was rainy, and windy, and all of our chores had to be done outside. But we got it done and parked to boat in the harbor.

Fast forward to today, this moment even. I’m sitting in my bunk staring outside at the sun gleaming off of the snow capped peaks of the chugach range. The ocean is flat calm mirroring the shoreline and landscape around me. Birds are chirping and seals are chasing smolt in the surrounding waters. I just got back from paddling around in a raft and eating a double cheeseburger.

These are the days that remind me that this is the most amazing work environment in the world. Prince William Sound.

We can’t fish until Thursday so after we put the boat in the water we went home to say goodbye to our family. This morning we returned to Whittier with our food and gear for the trip, all thoughts on heading out to start the season.

The boat ride out was perfet. The breeze behind us pushed us along at a quick pace and the sights were endless. Sea otters playing in the rafts of popweed plucked from the rocks by the waves, and glaciers running down mountain sides to meet the ocean.

In less than 36 hours the hard work will begin. The long hours and patience testing work filled with physical exhaustion is soon to come. But for now, we’re gonna enjoy our time in a place that we can call our second home.

 

A gillnet pictured on the drum with a boat hook.

 

This short video depicts the power of the waters that fisherman on the Copper River Delta can face: