Holy Whale!!!

Hard to believe Steve took this picture three days ago, but we got quite a show from the boat. A pod of about 8 humpback whales cruised by the boat, and I guess they were in a playful mood because we saw about 15-20 breaches in a 30 minute window. They are SOOOO huge...it looks like slow-motion when they shoot out of the water. Maybe Steve should have a career change to wildlife photographer?

This week was a week of records for the fishing vessel Worthy (that's our boat). We started the gill net opening with the three largest consecutive hauls Steve has ever seen. Each one had 550 fish in the net and took about 2 hours to pick each one. (we had to pick the fish out quickly because the net can start to sink under all the weight.) We threw the net out, waited just 30 minutes, picked the fish, threw the net back out, got unloaded (each haul was about 4,000 pounds), picked the second haul, threw the net back out a third time, got unloaded a second time, and then picked the net for the last time. It was a non-stop finger work out, and when we got done Steve asked me how long I thought that took. I guessed maybe 3-4 hours. We were moving the entire time, and those three sets took almost 10 hours and totaled 12,000 pounds!!!! Of course the action slowed for the next two days, but we ended up with 23,000 pounds of salmon this week. Crazy crazy.

Just a few words about the fish we are catching: 99 % are "enhanced" chum salmon. This means that two hatcheries in the Juneau area release millions of fry into holding pins in two locations. The fry are fed for about two months and then released to complete their 3-5 year life cycle in the ocean. When they come back, they return to their original feeding spots and not to a river mouth. Although the fish live for 5 years in their natural environment, eating their natural diet, the touch of human hands is not far away. If we did not catch them, millions of fish would return to the hatcheries and try to spawn in salt water (which doesn't work), and the beaches around Juneau would become bald eagle hang outs and smelly, carcass-filled places. Definitely a crazy thing to be a part of. I cannot think of any other food source (besides maybe mushrooms) where humans release organisms into the wild for later, large-scale harvesting. I could see this happening with insects, as more research is being done into the nutritional value of arthropods (not kidding check this: www.ted.com/talks/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects). Anyway, slightly off topic. So we are in effect, doing a good thing for these fish who would not be able to reproduce anyway. We are giving their lives purpose, so to speak...Haha.

The week ended with a record haul in the crab pots too. One bay with 12 pots averaged 16 keeper crabs per pot (that's the highest average Steve has ever seen in one area)! It brought our total average up to 5.2 for all of our gear, and Steve thinks this week is definitey our peak week for the season. Going back out again on Sunday, so I will update with more totals!