North Pacific Focus 2016 Summer Edition

SUMMER EDITION 2016

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Giddings grows a feel for steel

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While you spend time working on your boats and gear to prepare for the season ahead, we are also looking beyond the horizon, developing new markets and maintaining relationships with your customers in the U.S. and overseas.

Building global demand for Alaska seafood sustains fishing families and communities for generations. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute team is proud to be on deck with you. www.alaskaseafood.org

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SUMMER 2016

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COLUMNS

anderSon Family collection

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DEPARTMENTS DEPARTMENTS 22 PILOTHOUSE LOG PILOTHOUSE LOG 44 TIDINGS TIDINGS 54 CALENDAR CALENDAR 66 INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS 87 SEASON SUMMARY BOOK REVIEW 108 FISHERPOETS GALLEY WATCH 119 ASMI UPDATE FISHERPOETS 14 OUR YARD 10 SEASON FORECASTS 16 HULL STORY 12 THE OUR YARD ALSO ALSO

35 INDEX 35 AD AD INDEX 36 IN FOCUS 36 IN FOCUS

FEATURES 26

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GEAR SHIFTS

ON THE HORIZON Make way for mariculture

Exploring net developments that make it easier to work the web.

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YOUNGBLOODS Take a fisheries tech class

BOATBUILDING: KING ISLAND

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Behind the build of a new 50-foot tender at Bay Welding Services in Homer.

ON THE HOMEFRONT Waiting in Dungie purgatory

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22 THE LONG HAUL On the Arctic Trawler in ‘86

A FISHING FAMILY Looking through the Anderson family photo album for Alaska herring history

24 MAKING THE RULES Fighting Calif. monuments

Cover: The Nichole and the Deliverance are at Giddings for big rebuilds.

Giddings Boatworks photo

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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PILOTHOUSE L LOG

DOOM AND BLOOM I t’s not very often a fishing magazine comes in handy with a reading recommendation for children’s literature. But so it was in Lori French’s column (on p. 20) that describes the last California Dungeness season as a parallel to “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” Lori’s observations of the disastrous effects of this longterm closure of a bread-and-butter fishery for many ports up the coast encourage us to ask the question: Are we prepared?

I don’t want to turn anyone into a Doomsday Prepper over this. But if there’s anyone who should be prepping for the results of dramatic climatic swings, it’s fishermen. What about the farmers, you say? Well, they have crop insurance.

God love ’em.

What do fishermen have? Hopefully a savings, but is that really enough? Is it fair to leave them hanging out there like that? In the long run, of course, the Dungeness fleet could get some federal disaster relief, but that’s usually a long shot and a long game at that. Federal relief is not likely to recover the total expenses laid out to cover for a catastrophic loss, and what’s more, it seems like a haphazard approach to a sure problem.

As good as we’ve gotten at managing our wild stocks for sustainability, no amount of management can prevent or even predict the local repercussions of global shifts. So how do we protect our local economies from paying dearly for closures we can’t yet forecast?

First, the California crabbers and their families deserve some recognition for getting each other through this disastrous season. But at very least, I hope we can learn from this event the lesson that catastrophic and unpredictable things will happen and possibly with more frequency. This is exactly why fishermen should have some sort of federal safety net. I’m not necessarily advocating for a bag of cash to dip into in the lean times

PUBLISHER EDITOR IN CHIEF ASSOCIATE EDITOR BOATS & GEAR EDITOR ART DIRECTOR ONLINE EDITOR

PRODUCTION ASSOCIATE

Jerry Fraser Jessica Hathaway Samuel Hill Jean Paul Vellotti Doug Stewart Ashley Herriman

Dylan Andrews

or the option for commercial fishermen to buy catch insurance.

Rather, what if we gave fishing fleets some flexibility to do something else with their boats if and when the season taps out early or never gets off the ground? What if JESSICA HATHAWAY we gave them some Editor in chief flexibility regardless of disaster?

For starters, the federal government could agree to buy underutilized species to donate to food banks, nursing homes, Head Start programs. These species wouldn’t need to saddle federal or private programs with odd fillets. The government could contract seafood processors in slow seasons to convert the catch to value-added, easy to ship and store product forms.

You know what we certainly don’t have a glut of?

Healthy food, especially in underserved communities.

There are people in this country who can make things like this happen, if we can get them back to work. So I suppose this is my long-winded way of saying, please vote. Vote for local, state and federal candidates who are committed to working in government and making it work for us, not just setting out to shut it down.

We’ve seen enough shut-downs. It’s time to get back to work.

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North Pacific Focus, Summer 2016, Vol. 4, No. 2, is published quarterly by Diversified Business Communications, 121 Free St., P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438. READERS: All editorial correspondence should be mailed to: National Fisherman, P.O. Box 7438, Portland, ME 04112-7438.

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

TIDINGS

Aleutian Islands Bristol Bay Bristo ay Kenai

NEWS FROM THE WEST COAST & ALASKA

Ketchikan

Victoria Port Townsend

AquaBounty joins GMO salmon approval lawsuit

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‘This is not the real thing. This is not your wild Alaska salmon. This is a genetically engineered species?’”

AquaBounty has recently purchased a Canadian plant to expand operations and has reportedly been conducting field trials of its AquAdvantage salmon in Argentina and Brazil.

Professors say no to Pebble Mine subpoenas

on the Kenai campus of University of Alaska Anchorage, and Dan Rinella, a former UAA assistant biology professor.

Boraas was the principal investigator for the section of the EPA study on traditional ecoAlan Boraas logical knowledge and indigenous cultures. Rinella led the literature review of Bristol Bay fishery resources and recently left to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Pebble asked U.S. District Court Judge Russel Holland to order them to testify and produce documents related to their work in June. The professors

have since called the request intrusive and claim the order would threaten their academic freedom to pursue scientific research.

Boraas published opinion pieces critical of the Pebble mine project before beginning to work with the EPA. “I do not think that expressing those views should open up my records to the degree that Pebble seeks under this subpoena, and if this Court determines that Pebble should be allowed to enforce this intrusive subpoena based on my policy or political views, it will have a chilling effect on my expression of my views in the future,” Boraas said in a court filing.

The University of Alaska has remained neutral on whether the Pebble project should move forward.

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wo professors at the University of Alaska are fighting subpoenas from Pebble Limited Partnership seeking evidence in its lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the requests are wasting valuable university resources.

Pebble has been examining most work surrounding the Bristol Bay watershed assessment released in 2014, looking for information that may help prove EPA officials were too close to antimine advocates and illegally altered their review of the project.

The partnership issued subpoenas to Alan Boraas, an anthropology professor 4

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

U.S. Senate

Meanwhile, a federal bill is still in the works that will dictate how genetically engineered products should be labeled.

As it stands, information about whether a food contains genetically modified products can be made available through a system digital codes, such as QR codes.

Critics of the bill have called it the Deny Americans the Right to Know, or DARK, Act and urged lawmakers to vote it down, saying a QR code or symbol isn’t enough to keep consumers in the know.

“What we’ve been told is that if these genetically engineered salmon are out on the market, those who are marketing these salmon can voluntarily label them,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (RAlaska). “Well let me ask you, who do you think is really going to voluntarily place a label on something that says,

UniverSity of alaSka

U.S. federal judge recently agreed to let Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies join a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s January approval of genetically engineered salmon.

This spring, a coalition of environmental organizations — including the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch and Friends of the Earth — filed a lawsuit claiming the agency failed to consider all of the environmental risks associated with the approval and ignored input from fisheries leaders.

Defendants include the FDA; its commissioner, Robert Califf; and Sylvia Burrell, the secretary of Health and Human Services, who oversees the FDA. Judge Vince Chhabria of California’s northern district said AquaBounty has “significantly protectable interest at stake” in the ongoing litigation.

Sen. Murkowski testifies on labeling bill.

Pew says Pacific bluefin tuna are endangered

overfishing and return the population to healthy levels.

“Pacific-wide, bluefin are now imperiled across their full range to a degree beyond anything ever seen for a tuna population. It is time for those responsible for managing this species to consider the science and use the tools at their disposal to help bluefin tuna recover,” Pew’s director of global tuna conservation Amanda Nickson said. “If governments fail to take immediate action, a population collapse isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable.”

Multiple tuna researchers have said publicly that one of the biggest issues facing the stock is that over 90 percent of landed fish are juveniles that have never reproduced.

The United States is responsible for about 5 percent of the annual catch of Pacific bluefin tuna and about 3 percent of its global consumption, while Japan and Mexico account for much larger shares of the 37 million pounds of Pacific bluefin tuna caught annually.

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he Pew Charitable Trusts has called for a two-year moratorium on commercial fishing for Pacific bluefin tuna, saying the population is at risk of collapse if the current management is allowed to continue unchecked.

An assessment released at a recent regulatory meeting in Japan found numbers of bluefin were worse than previously thought, with the population at just 2.6 per cent of its historic size.

Pew claims that despite the state of the population, the two international bodies that manage Pacific Bluefin — the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, which met this month in California, and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which meets in December in Fiji — have failed for several years to agree on a Pacific-wide recovery plan that will end

NOAA

Race to Alaska enjoys a record-breaking finish

Pew calls for two-year tuna fishing ban.

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three-man team on a catamaran took the top prize in the 750-mile motorless Race to Alaska. Captain Randy Miller and crew members Ian Andrews and Colin Dunphy of team MAD

SEPTEMBER Sept. 9-11 Santa Rosalia Fisherman’s Festival 1 Custom House Plaza Monterey, CA (831) 625-9623 www.festaitaliamonterey.org

Sept. 11-12 Newport Wild Seafood Weekend Port Dock 7, Newport, OR www.newportfishermenswives.com

Sept. 24 Fishermen’s Fall Festival Fishermen’s Terminal 1900 W. Nickerson St. Seattle, WA www.fishermensfallfestival.org

OCTOBER Oct. 3-11 North Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting Hilton Anchorage West 3rd Ave. Anchorage, AK www.npfmc.org

Oct. 7-9 Dungeness Crab Festival 221 N. Lincoln St. Port Angeles, WA (360) 452-6300 www.crabfestival.org

To list your event in North Pacific Focus, contact Samuel Hill at shill@divcom.com or (207) 842-5622.

Dog Racing sailed across the finish line with a time of three days, 20 hours and 13 minutes.

They beat last year’s a record by more than a day.

More than 100 people in over 50 boats participated in the 40-mile Proving Grounds leg from Portt Townsend, Wash., to Victoria, B.C., and about 30 took on the trek from Victoria to Ketchikan, Alaska.

Team MAD Dog racing was ahead of the pack from the start; an official race update described the first day of the race: “To the surprise of no one, Team MAD Dog Racing slipped the leash and ran rabid out ahead of the pack — making upwards of 12 knots in roughly the same amount of wind.”

The last official finisher was Tim Penhallow, the sole competitor onboard Team Can’t Anchor Us at 25 days. He had finished as a member of a team in a previous race.

Race to Alaska co-founder Jake Beattie handed over $10,000 cash nailed to a chunk of wood to Team MAD Dog while others were finishing the race.

Second prize, a set of steak knives, went to Team Skiff Foundation Jungle Kitty, an eight-member crew on a 44-foot carbon-fiber sloop.

NOVEMBER Nov. 16-21 Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting Hyatt Regency Orange County 11999 Harbor Blvd.

Garden Grove, CA (714) 750-1234 www.pcouncil.org

Nov. 17-19 Pacific Marine Expo CenturyLink Field Event Center 800 Occidental Ave. S. Seattle, WA (207) 842-5508 www.pacificmarineexpo.com

Nov. 29-30 International Pacific Halibut Commission Interim Meeting Location TBD, Seattle, WA (206) 634-1838 www.iphc.intd SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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INDUSTRY WAYPOINTS After 50 years the Alaska Independent Fishermen’s Association’s board of directors voted to change the name of the organization to the Bristol Bay Fishermen’s Association.

AIFMA was incorporated seven years before the passing of the limited entry law that designated Area T, and the board at the time saw no reason to limit the organization to Bristol Bay. It had members who fished in different areas off Alaska, after all. They say the need

for fishermen to be professionally re represented in a number of areas is cclearer today. “ “The new name will more a accurately describe who we are, wh where we fish, and the fact that we a are organized,” said the association’s president David Harsila. “I trust that our

fishery and our association will thrive for another 50 years.”

Everett Thompson of Naknek joined the board in May. He’s fished out of Bristol Bay for nearly 33 years, has served on several boards and advisory committees and has worked with antiPebble mine groups since 2004.

• Ray Hilborn, a University of Washington professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, received the 2016 International Fisheries Science Prize in late May at the World Fisheries Congress in Busan, South Korea.

The award was given to Hilborn by the World Council of Fisheries SocietRay Hilborn ies’ International

Fisheries Science Prize Committee in recognition of his 40-year career of “highly diversified research and publication in support of global fisheries science and conservation.”

Hilborn’s research and teaching at UW is in natural resource management and conservation. He has authored several books, including “Overfishing:What Everyone Needs to Know,” and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles.

• U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the appointments of Michael “Buck” Laukitis and Theresa Peterson to Michael “Buck” the North Pacific Laukitis Fishery Management Council on June 27.

Peterson has been a commercial and subsistence fisherman for more than 30

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

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• Federal biologists are proposing to remove a species of Puget Sound rockfish from the endangered species list.

NMFS says a new study found that Puget Sound/Georgia Basin canary rockfish is not genetically different from other canary rockfish found along the West Coast, making it ineligible for federal protection. Researchers conducted genetic testing on fin clips collected

from rockfish caught by anglers.

The long-living bottom dweller was listed as threatened in 2010. Two other species — yelloweye rockfish and boccaccio — listed at that time would still protected under the Endangered Species Act. • Longtime fisherman Howard Knutsen, 86, landed the 2 billionth salmon caught in Bristol Bay’s 133-year commercial fishing history, according to harvest statistics from the Alaska Department of Fish

Sharon ThompSon

years and currently serves as an advisory panel member on the North Pacific council. Her other memberships include the Alaska Jig Association, the Community Fish Network and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

Laukitis is a commercial fisherman and the owner of Magic Fish Co. and Compass Rose Properties. He helped develop the Alaska Maritime Workforce Development Plan in 2014, has a U.S. Coast Guard 100 on Masters License and is a longstanding member of the board of trustees for the Homer Foundation.

The nominations went into effect Aug. 11.

Knutsen holding the 2 billionth salmon.

and Game.

The fish was caught on July 6, 38 years after salmon number 1 billion was

caught in the Nushagak River district on June 28, 1978, according to ADF&G. • The Clean Marina Program, a partnership of the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the Northwest Marine Trade Association and Washington Sea Grant, has worked for 20 years to minimize small vessel spills and will now be targeting private boaters.

According to the partnership, 75 percent of the oil dumped into Puget Sound waters over the past 10 years have been caused by small recreational and commercial vessels, not tankers and freighters.

Washington Sea Grant and their partners have launched the Small Spills Prevention Program to provide boaters with the knowledge and tools they need to stop oil pollution at the source.

The partnership handed out 1,000 prevention kits last year in a pilot program and have seen great results. They’re looking to give away another 1,000 kits this summer through Washington Sea Grant.

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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SEASON SUMMARY

Outlook

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It took 95 years for Bristol Bay to produce its first billion salmon; the 2 billionth fish will come just 38 years after that.

ALASKA FISHERIES

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ALASKA DAVE STREET Fish spotter for Southeast Alaska salmon seiners with pilot Gary Thompson of Admiralty Air Services “I’m optimistic [about the season]. The prices seem like they’re strengthening. The forecast is decent, so just wait and see it all happen and unfold.”

“I’ve talked to a lot of biologists and other people about the Blob, what they think about it and there’s just not enough… hard evidence to know its impact. In a way I’m not worried about it, but maybe we could attribute higher mortalities to the warming North Pacific. I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on that and I don’t know any biologist that can. It’s just an unknown.

“But the ocean is warmer. The surface temperature down here in Southeast is 58 now, and 58 degrees

Jessica HatHaway

MAX WORHATCH IV Captain and owner of the 42-foot salmon gillnetter and Dungeness boat Summer Breeze in Petersburg, Alaska

Max Worhatch IV

“Dungeness was disappointing this summer. A high price led to nearly full participation by permit holders.

Due to the loss of area from sea

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

— Bob King, HISTORIAN, JUNEAU

Dave Street

JORDAN HART Deckhand on the Bristol Bay salmon gillnetter Odie II, fishing the Naknek-Kvichak District out of Bellingham, Wash.

Jordan Hart

is just really warm for this time of the season. Right now people are thinking these chums are holding offshore, maybe the higher temperatures are part of that.”

otter predation, gear and boats were concentrated in areas that haven’t been affected by otters. It was also a down cycle for Dungeness, something we experience on a regular basis.

One area did produce well, but it was over in a couple weeks due to effort.

I haven’t talked to anyone lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills.”

“Salmon has been OK, but again nothing to jump up and down about.

Sockeye returns to the Stikine River were very good, and there was ample time in adjacent areas. Chum returns have been disappointing; pinks are weak over most of the region; and the jury is out on coho. You never know with salmon though, so there is still some hope. Prices are rather blah, mostly due to the strength of the dollar.”

“The boat is in the water. I’ve got a couple minor projects that aren’t too critical that we’re trying to occupy our time with and playing cribbage and trying to exercise a little bit to keep the jitters off.”

“The season is really shaping up again. The fish seem to be there, just not as early as everyone had hoped I guess. In fish camp everyone is excited and antsy and ready to get the ball rolling.

DUNGENESS CRAB

SOCKEYE

CHUM

SEASON SUMMARY

“

Lorrin French

— Nick Jerkavich, CAPTAIN, F/V PACIFIC RAIDER

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JEREMIAH O’BRIEN Captain of the 48-foot albacore troller Aguero out of Morro Bay, Calif., and 2015 National Fisherman Highliner “It’s been a fairly windy season here.

It’s a very, very odd year.

“There was incredibly good fishing here in early June. Usually the fish show up around the first of July, which would indicate they probably were here in May. But no one was looking for them.

“A lot of people, including myself, were getting ready. A friend of mine had 30 tons the first month.

This is the windier part of the area that we’re working Jeremiah in, down O’Brien toward the Cape Blanco area (southern coast of Oregon). A lot of 20s to 30s, some 30s to 35s. Once it gets over 30, then the gear doesn’t work all that well.

“Other than that it’s been a god year.

The landings have been all over the board. The price for our fish was $2,600 (per ton) for brine bled albacore.

“There’s no TAC. It’s wide open. We fish it when they show up and stop when they go away. Anyone who tells you they have them figured out probably hasn’t been in the business very long.

“The stocks seem to be very healthy.

Our catch rate has remained very stable since the ’80s.”

ALBACORE TUNA

SALMON

SQUID

WASHINGTON OREGON CALIFORNIA FISHERIES

Outlook

WEST COAST

JOHN DELUCA J. DeLuca Fish Co. President of the J. DeLuca Fish Co., which runs a fiveboat squid fleet out of San Pedro, Calif.

“Our quota opens up on April 1. You can go as long as you don’t see the 118,000 tons maximum quota. In the last three or four years we’ve reached the quota, but last year we did not. We came nowhere near it due to the El Niño conditions. Now we’re having what I would look at as a typical summer run, where fish will accumulate over the weekend.

They’ll get heavier days on Monday, Tuesday, and then it will probably taper down as the week wears on. The fish are spread out all over the place, from down at Newport Beach all the way up to Point Conception and out at the outer islands. Santa Barbara Island, Catalina Islands, Clemente Island.

“Squid today is at $1,000/ton to the boat. In my lifetime I’ve never seen squid this high. So a lot of guys who would be fishing salmon at this time of year in Alaska, they’re gonna come down here and fish squid. We used to have a winter and fall fishery, but now we’ve got a spring and summer fishery.”

Dave heLLiweLL

This year has been a change in the normal pattern. Of course, with the last El Niño, squid wasn’t $1,000 a ton.

JOHN MCMANUS Executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association in Petaluma, Calif.

“I think it’s fair to say that but for the trucking John of hatchery fish in 2014 and 2015 in response to McManus GGSA advocacy, we probably wouldn’t have an ocean salmon fishing season in California this year.

“Having said that, it’s not been a great season by any measure. The commercial season was greatly constrained this year by two concerns.

One was for low numbers of ESA-listed winter run salmon. This caused the season in central California to be shut early. The second concern was over low numbers of coastal fall run king salmon which resulted in less time on the water for northern California waters.

“Commercial salmon fishing was closed for all in July. On top of all of that, the wind blew pretty hard in May, June and most of July, which limited fishing opportunity.

“The commercial season reopened on August 3 from Pigeon Point (in southern San Mateo County) north to southern Humboldt County. Hopefully prices will remain good to make it worthwhile if low numbers of kings are caught.”

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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www.nationalfisherman.com

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Erin Fristad survived 15 years as a deckhand.

She chased herring near Togiak, crab off the Columbia River, salmon more places than she can remember, and for five years pursued fish in the name of science.

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one of us knew who wrote it or remembered when it first appeared. It was part of the landscape but we looked at it in awe every time we passed under the Fred Zharoff Bridge. It meant different things depending if you were coming or going from the fishing grounds, if you’d made money or not. On sunny afternoons without raingear, without our hoods on, when it warm enough to look up, we pondered out loud. Who? And more importantly, did it work? Often a new guy, trying to impress us, would say he knew the guy whose girlfriend did it.The other new guy would cut him off, ‘No, man it was the dude’s wife and he died before he ever saw it.”

“You’re both wrong,” I’d say. “It was a crewmember I worked with in the eighties. I remember the night he did it. The crab season ran long that year. We were making money, but all the crab were out west in Dutch and we only came to town once: to pick up more pots.We had 24 hours to see our wives and kids.

They made love; actually, they probably fucked like starved animals the way we all did our first night back. Then they fell asleep curled in a ball and he dreamed of eating bacon with his kids in the morning. The phone woke him, ‘Boat leaves in an hour, there’s a front moving in.’ She went ballistic. He hadn’t even seen the kids. She told him if he left, she would too, head to her sister’s in Phoenix. She’d have the divorce papers filed before the season was over.

It was snowing hard when I pulled up and she was chasing him down the front walk punching his hunched-over back with her little pink fists. She was barefoot, her silk robe falling open.

I remember thinking where do you get a robe like that in Kodiak?

She threw a garbage can lid at my truck as we pulled away. He was silent but I could see the tears running down his face in the light from oncoming cars. He pulled out a flask and took a long pull. I never told him but when I looked back his two kids had come outside, the little was one trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth.

We arrived at the boat and he disappeared. Skipper was anxious to leave. I stalled by saying the main needed an oil change. I heard the guys screaming on deck and thought he’d fallen overboard. I ran topside and realized they were cheering. There he was hanging from the bridge, he’d lowered himself down using a tie-up line. He had paint we used to mark buoys.”

This shuts the new guys up. They don’t want to know what happened next. They don’t want to know if it’s true.

ON THE MARKET The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute

at your service New site launch he Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is pleased to announce the launch of the new AlaskaSeafood.org website.

Rebuilt from the ground up, the new site increases access to resources that our stakeholders will find m o s t valuable, such as direct marketing materials, Responsible Fisheries Management program updates, and a section specifically for fishermen.

The months-long effort relied on input from industry members and focused on ease of navigation, improved user experience, and creating a modern and fresh online space for all aspects of Alaska’s dynamic seafood industry.

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Town Hall Series: Bristol Bay SMI hosted a town hall meeting in Bristol Bay on Saturday, June 11.

It was the fifth in a series of gatherings this year that are focused on facilitating an open dialogue with fishermen across the state.

A packed house of salmon fishermen discussed the Alaska sockeye markets and the overall economic situation affecting Alaska seafood markets today.

ASMI shared examples of promotions that address the challenges we face.

Prior town hall meetings have been held in Juneau, Petersburg, Anchorage and Cordova.

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Learn to Feed Your Fitness with Alaska seafood SMI has sponsored two-time Olympian and U.S. half-marathon record holder Ryan Hall and his wife, Sara, who is a 3,000-meter steeplechase and marathon runner, U.S. national champion and World Team member. As elite

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runners, Ryan and Sara know how important nutrition is to their all-around fitness. Together with the Halls, ASMI has developed the Feed Your Fitness with Alaska Seafood campaign, which includes a recipe brochure, digital and print advertising, and a video.

ASMI sets up summer seafood promotions alMart: Fresh overwrap program for wild Alaska salmon (nationwide).

Sam’s Club: In-store demo program featuring fresh Alaska sockeye salmon (nationwide; 200 demos).

ASMI has also launched its first domestic promotion with online retailer Fresh Direct. Headquartered in New York City with strong distribution in a five-state area in the Northeast.

The Summer Lovin’ promotion is the first of three multispecies promotions scheduled with Fresh Direct over the summer.

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Where Flavor Runs Wild illustrated materials available SMI Foodservice is excited to announce new point-of-sale materials for one of the most popular fish in the country — Alaska salmon.

Using proprietary research, these new materials were developed to help operators drive purchase interest and sales of wild Alaska salmon. The vintage inspired point-of-sale materials were illustrated by Jeff Foster, who also illustrated the Foodservice Program’s Alaska cod point-of-sale materials. The point-ofsale items include a poster, table tent, menu sheet and wait staff button.

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11

the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management Certification Program. GSSI’s recognition shows that the Alaska RFM Program (Fisheries Standard V 1.3, effective Jan. 1, 2016) meets the FAO guidelines for the ecolabeling of fish and fishery products from marine capture fisheries. Through the benchmark process, the Alaska RFM Program has demonstrated alignment with all 143 applicable essential components of GSSI’s global benchmark tool (version 1.0, effective Oct. 8, 2015). The tool consists of performance areas related to scheme governance, operational management and applied wild-capture fisheries audit standards.

Updated Whitefish Buyers Guide he ASMI Technical Program collaborated with industry representatives from the ASMI technical and whitefish committees to create an updated Whitefish Buyers Guide. The new guide contains information about whitefish harvesting and processing, as well as resources on Alaska whitefish quality, sustainability, fishing regulations and nutrition.

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cies of Alaska seafood throughout the trip; met local fishermen, community leaders and seafood experts; and experienced Alaska’s fishing culture firsthand.

Southeast Asia trade mission SMI was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture Emerging Market Program’s grant to conduct a trade mission to Southeast Asia. The EMP helps U.S. organizations promote exports of U.S. agricultural products to countries that have — or are developing — market-oriented

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economies and that have the potential to be viable commercial markets.

The delegation traveled to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam to explore market feasibility for Alaska seafood.

The group met with importers, retailers and government officials during the mission that took place Feb. 2028. Trade seminars were held in each location to educate local key seafood industry members on Alaska seafood, which included chef demos, samples of Alaska seafood, and lectures on each species, as well as one-on-one meetings.

Your North Pacific

Neighbors

Japanese media tour in Alaska SMI hosted a delegation of Japanese media from Feb. 14-18 in Dutch Harbor. During the three-day

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OUR YARD

QUICK LOOK at Giddings Boatworks

GIDDINGS BOATWORKS GooGle Maps

The Nichole (left) and the Deliverance, are both down from Alaska for sponsoning.

LOCATION

Charleston, Charleston h l Ore. Ore

OWNER

Ray Cox

YEARS IN BUSINESS

37

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 20

GiddinGs Boat Works photos

NUMBER OF BOATS BUILT 23, all but three are commercial fishing boats

BY SAMUEL HILL

S

ince it opened in 1979, Giddings Boatworks has primarily been a repair facility. However, the yard has launched 23 boats out of Charleston, Ore., and 20 of those were fishing vessels — all of them still active today.

The most well-known boats out of Giddings have been big players on the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch.”

The Maverick, an 82-foot house aft crabber with a 120-pot capacity was built by the yard in 1982. Purchased by Rick and Donna Quashnick of Warrenton, Ore., in 1991, the vessel was in the first three seasons. Eight years later, they built the 92-foot Ramblin’ Rose, which joined the cast of the 2011 season of the show. In 2006, the 96-foot Aleutian Ballard was damaged by a rouge wave, and Giddings completed the refit that gave her a new life as a crab tour boat.

And of course, Giddings built the Time Bandit, one of the show’s most popular, back in 1991. The Time Bandit is a 113-foot house aft boat that carries 137 pots, and the custom-built interior has comforts unheard of in a crabber: a four-person sauna, state rooms with 14

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

queen-size beds, and a dishwasher.

While the yard built other boats and made repairs to a slew of others in its first years, the Deadliest Catch boats gave Giddings some notoriety up and down the West Coast.

In 2007, Don Giddings, the yard’s founder and then-owner, was looking to retire and trying to sell the yard he founded. Without a lot of bites, there was talk of it going to auction. Know-

“It’s all quiet, then everything comes at once, and we have to turn

”

something away.

— Ray Cox, owner ing the yard was an important staple in the area, local fishermen persuaded Ray Cox, 15-year owner of nearby Tarheel Aluminum and Fabrication.

“It took a whole lot of talking, because I didn’t really want to do it,” said Cox. “I knew that it was going to be a

NOTABLE BOATS Maverick, Time Bandit. Ramblin’ Rose, Patriot, Miss Emily FISHERIES SERVED Crab, shrimp, scallops, cod, pollock OTHER SERVICES Repair work real stressful job, and I didn’t want it… but they convinced me in the end. It’s worked out pretty good so far.”

Tarheel primarily builds aluminum barges, but Cox “worked on a lot of these boats side-by-side with Giddings.

It was a good partnership.”

He says he was almost taken out in those early years, not realizing just how much energy and money it took a place like Giddings. “It was pretty scary, but we got through that,” Cox said.

The yard has shined and tripled in size since Cox took the reins and got comfortable. It grew from a nine-man team to having closer to 40 employees on staff during busy seasons. “It’s been harder and harder to find good workers,” said Cox. “During slow times, you can find the cream of the crop. When it gets busy, you can’t be picky. “ In 2011, Cox hired Mike Lee, who has been working on boats for nearly 40 years, as the yard manager.

“I got started on the right foot when I came to Giddings,” says Lee. “We built a couple new boats right from the get-go; that’s always good.”

OUR YARD The Nichole (right) taking off postsponsoing with a fresh paint job, and the Deliverance (below) shortly after the Giddings crew started removing the bow.

partner so far.”

His son is working on building his first aluminum crabber and gets occasional jobs from Giddings when the manpower isn’t there.

Cox is in the middle of negotiating a potential newbuild for the yard — a trawler for f Kodiak K di that’ll be upward of 80 feet long. He says he’s traveling up to Alaska at the end of the summer for serious talks and that a decision will be made soon one way or another.“It’d be a big feather in our cap,” he adds.

“There’s a lot up in the air right now,” says Cox of that job and a handful of sponson talks he’s gotten into.

“That’s the problem. It’s all quiet, then everything comes at once, and we have to turn something away. That’s the business we’re in though.”

Al Alaska k bboat the h O Ocean H Hunter iin ffor a stern extension right now. The boat goes after scallops, cod and pollock.

“It was really beat up. Scallopers always need a lot of work when they come in, lots of maintenance,” says Lee. On top of the stern extension, it’s also being fit with a raised poopdeck to make the boat a little safer. Lee says the owners might be looking for a sponson in the next year or two and want to make sure the vessel is a good candidate for the job. “There might be a repower in the works then, too,” says Lee. While running the yard is a busy job, Samuel Hill is associate editor of North Pacific Cox is always looking to the future. Focus.

With Giddings running smoothly, his 29-year-old son recently took over Tarheel.

“He’s been with me out on boats since he was about 15,” said Cox. “We have our ups and owns. You expect more out of 42' Stormi Gayle your own family than you do other people. If someNow accepting orders for hulls, thing’s wrong, they kits and complete boats. hear about it more We offer twelve models from 25' to 47' than everyone. We 932 U.S. Route 1, Steuben, Maine 04680 get through that Phone: (207) 546-7477 Fax: (207) 546-2163 though and get along pretty well. www.hhmarineinc.com He’s been a good

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Brian Robbins

After a boatbuilding drought after 1999, the yard built two new vessels, the 67-foot Patriot and the 72-foot Miss Emily in 2013 and 2014. Both boats were steel-hulled and designed for both crabbing and shrimping.

Giddings doesn’t have a design of their own for new boats, so all of their projects are custom builds. “We don’t like to say no to anything,” says Cox. “If we can handle it, we’ll do it. They’ll bring us a plan, and we’ll get going.We try to hammer all the details out beforehand, but sometimes new ideas pop up mid-build, and we gotta work through that.”

There hasn’t been a lot of interest in newbuilds in the past few years, but Giddings has kept busy with bigger repair jobs. Because of their location, they have unorthodox busy seasons working with vessels from Alaska down to California.

They do a lot of gear change-overs for boats that tackle multiple fisheries.

“They always wait until the last minute, too, every year,” says Cox. “And expect us to do it at the drop of a hat. We usually find time to squeeze them in.”

One of the biggest recent jobs was sponsoning the 98-foot Seeker, an Alaska vessel (see “Trawl overhaul,” National Fisherman, March 2015, p. 28). It came in at 26 feet wide and left 36 feet wide. It was a dry-dock job, and getting the boat back in the water was quite a task.

Last November, they sponsoned the 75-foot dragger Nichole. The boat had been in for maintenance the previous spring, but there wasn’t time for the job before she had to get back to fishing in Kodiak, Alaska. Her dimensions went from 78' x 24' to 90' x 34'.

Right now, the yard is taking on two big jobs. The Stillwater, a 49-foot 10inch crab and shrimp boat, was hauled in March and has gone through some changes. It had been fitted with shrimp gear at Giddings the year before, but when it was headed by a breeze or current, “the boat’s 350-hp John Deere didn’t have enough power to keep the nets floating,” says Lee. That engine was replaced by a 640-hp Cummins KTA19M3, and a lot of work was done to the infrastructure to accommodate the bigger engine. It’s also being lengthened by 10 feet. “It’s almost time to paint it and launch it,” said Cox in early August.

They’ve also got the multipurpose

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

15

INSIDE the F/V DEFENDER

The HULL STORY

F/V DEFENDER

Sierra Golden

The Global Seas trawl fleet welcomes a new 169-foot pollock pumper.

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he pollock fleet’s newest boat — F/V Defender, owned by Global Seas of Seattle — is not entirely new. The The Defender was converted to the Alaska original structure was pollock fishery at Patti Marine in Pensacola, Fla. built in 2006 and even its name comes from an old Global Seas boat also known as the Defender. The new Defender, however, is set to be a true standout in the fleet.

Stan Frech, Global Seas port engineer, oversaw the conversion of the 164-foot Western Venture, an East Coast pair trawler, at Patti Marine Enterprises in Pensacola, Fla. “The shell is fantastic,” Frech says. “That’s why we bought the boat.”

Since making the purchase in 2014, the Global Seas team has added a slew of unique features to the boat. Most notably, the Defender will be one of a few Alaskan pollock boats pumping its fish on board. As a pair trawler, the boat side pumped its catch. During the conversion, it was fitted to stern pump fish. Greg Shuey, Global Seas operations manager, explained that the net will be shaped into “a big horseshoe at the back of the boat,” and a pump inserted into the back of the net will suck fish from the water to the boat’s holding tanks.

“The idea is that the pump will be a better treatment for the fish,” Shuey says. “A trawl net can hold 100 tons, so the squish factor is high when considering the traditional method of lifting a net onboard. Pump boats are common in Europe, but Shuey hopes that in Alaska the quality added by pumping will fetch a premium.

Once the fish are onboard, they’ll travel through a 14-inch stainless steel pipe to the factory deck and dewatering room — this space is so new, the Defender crew has yet to settle on an official name — where the fish will be dewatered, poured onto conveyor belts, and finally tipped into the boat’s RSW tanks. In case of blockages, the steel pipes sport custom “water cannons” that allow crew to hook up deck hoses, spray against the flow of fish, and break up — fingers crossed — anything holding up the pumping.

Instead of just one or two large RSW tanks, the Defender’s capacity is broken up into 10 narrow holds. The specialized design reduces “slosh,” giving the boat greater stability and improving the quality of pollock delivered. These tanks will

16

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

Global SeaS

By Sierra Golden

Home port: Dutch Harbor, Alaska Owner: Dona Martita, Shoreline, Wash.

Operator: Global Seas, Seattle Fishery: Pacific pollock Year Built: 2006 Length Overall: 169.5 feet Beam: 40 feet Maximum Draft: 18 feet Weight: 490 GRT, 333 NRT Gross Tonnage: 1,370 GT ITC Net Tonnage: 436 NT ITC Accommodations: 11 Hold Capacity: 2.2 million lbs.

Fuel Capacity: 38,172 gallons Freshwater: 3,760 gallons Main Engines: 2 Caterpillar 3516B 1,800-hp @ 1,785 rpm Reduction Gear 2 ZF AG ZFW7500 4.95:1 Propellers: 2 81" x 60" 5-blade S/S Sound prop w/nozzles Generators: 2 Caterpillar 3412 590-kW 440-volt Marathon; Caterpillar C-9 DI 165-kW 440volt generators Deck Equipment: 2 Rapp Marine TWS-10029 trawl winches, TWS-10010T topline winch, GWB-4002 tail line winch, ND 10002B net drums, SOW-300 net sounder winch, HRRL hydraulic hose reel, CP2500 16-inch and CP-2000 12-inch fish pumps; Karmoy Winch fish hose reel; Petrel engineering 3.6 ton knuckle crane with 3-ton power block ESI 045/3S 8.6M/430 kg Navigation Electronics: 2 Furuno SC50 sat compasses, FAR2127 X-band ARPA radio, FAR 2117 X-band radio, 2 GP32 GPS, Navtex plotter, FA150 AIS; ECC Globe plotter; Simrad Olex plotter; Dirigo 6-inch magnetic compass Communication Electronics: Furuno RC1815 GMDSS Console; Felcom 18 Sat C; FS1575 150-watt SSB; 2 FM8900S DSC VHFs; 2 PP520 printers; IB585 NBDP Telex Terminal; 2 Icom M602 VHF; Icom M506.01 DSC VHF; Icom F121 and ICF5021 VHFs; EF

The HULL STORY

Sierra Golden

hold upward of 2.2 million pounds and will give the Defender the largest wet fish hold capacity vessel in the United States.

The Defender carries two full sets of gear on deck and ready to set. Though the crew loses deck space for mending projects, this type of setup means the boat is always ready to fish — even immediately following a hang-up or tear.

Most of the Defender’s most notable qualities are related to the act of fishing, but it’s impossible not to mention the wheelhouse. Fully remodeled, the wheelhouse now includes eight 52-inch flat screens arranged in an arc in front of the captain’s chair. With a few simple swipes to a touch screen,

Sierra Golden

The new wheelhouse is equipped with eight 52-inch screens to monitor all operations.

The crew will dewater the catch before it is goes into RSW tanks.

the captain can arrange radars, charts, sounders and more across the screens in front of him, providing all the information he needs in one central space.

The Defender put its new-old greatness to a first test during the Pollock B season of summer 2016.

Johnson 242-8615 800MHz radio; SeaTel 4006 VSAT; Sailor TT3026DF Sat C VMS; Furuno LH3000 loudhailer; Panasonic KXTA824 IP Hybrid PBX phone Fishfinding Electronics: Simrad ES70 echosounders; Furuno FCV1200 w/Airmar CHIRP; Simrad FS70 net sounder; Marport wireless trawl system; Simrad SX95 sonar; Furuno CSH21F sonar and CI68BB doppler Safety Equipment: Ovatek Rigid 7-person life raft; Revere SOLAS Mk III TO 12-person life raft; McMurdo Smartfind G5 GPS 406 MHz GPIRB; McMurdo SART; 2 Icom GM1600 VHF; 9 Stearns Thermashield suits; 3 Imperial 1409 suits

put your best fleet forward Foss Maritime’s two full-service shipyards are equipped to take on any project from cost-effective repairs and maintenance to major conversions and new construction.

With multiple dry docks and marine railways, cranes up to 90-tons, experienced teams of ABS- and DNV-certified engineers and highly skilled craftspeople, we keep your fleet moving forward.

always safe. always ready. www.foss.com/shipyards 800.426.2885

Sierra Golden is a seiner deckhand and freelance writer living in Seattle.

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

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ON THE HORIZON The process is well on its way, and growth in this sector is absolutely necessary as an economic driver for Alaska’s coastal communities. Indeed, there have been and continue to be shellfish and Markos Scheer practices commercial and admiralty law in Washington kelp mariculture operations in Alaska. and Alaska with Williams Kastner, a full-service firm. He serves on the Roughly 30 farms already exist, with kelp test operations starting in a numboard of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, is a former ber of locations. The leasing, licensing president of the Northwest Fisheries Association and has worked in and permitting structures are already in the seafood industry for more than 30 years. place for private mariculture to grow.

Mariculture and commercial fishing in

BY MARKOS SCHEER fishery to a domestic juggernaut. The Alaska are symbiotic. Every troller, gillmarket mandated changes, such as the netter, seiner and longliner could have a ommercial fishing in Alaska is a elimination of dry boats, and the advent mariculture site to raise.

When we look at the commonalities fundamental part of the fabric of of value-added production, like the volAlaska and has been since the time when umes of smoked fish and other ready for in both the infrastructure and the industry, it appears to be a perfect fit and then-Secretary of State William Seward retail products.

Technology, like pin-bone removal provides another way for fishermen to and Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoecki signed the and mechanized filleting, has changed diversify their fishing operations, find 1867 agreement for the United States to the fisheries in Alaska and the economic another use for capital assets (vessels) and purchase the great state of Alaska from model under which it operates.The fish- trade on their seafood industry knowRussia. Over the next nearly 150 years, eries that form the backbone of the in- how and relationships. Even better, bethe fisheries, commercial and subsistence, dustry have matured, through regulation cause mariculture does not require dayhave undergone many changes, both in and technology. However, opportunities to-day oversight, fishermen could conharvesting and processing methods, and to diversify the slate of products are al- tinue with their existing operations and most without limitation. still use their vessels and equipment to availability of and value of species.

In Alaska we harvested vast volumes The Alaska Fisheries Development tend to the mariculture operations. salmon, herring, shrimp, crab, halibut, Foundation, a nonprofit regional fisherThe processing and transportation inroe on kelp, pollock, cod and any num- ies development organization, made pro- frastructure in Alaska is a natural fit to ber of other species of the bounty that motion of the Alaska Mariculture Initia- process and market mariculture prodAlaska has been blessed ucts, which reduces the with. Fortunes have Every troller, gillnetter, seiner and longliner associated capital costs been made and lost.

Alaska has more than could have a mariculture site to raise.

Colorful characters, 30,000 miles of coastline, pioneers, innovators with nutrient-rich waand more than a couple outlaws have tive its primary focus for the last several ters, much of which is ideal for maricontributed to the industry’s intrigue years. The foundation received multiple culture operations. The net result will be and helped make it the most consistent grants to conduct economic studies on economic development; creating yearpillar of the Alaskan economy for more the viability of the production of non- round jobs throughout the state; sustainthan a century. finfish species. On Feb. 26, 2016, Gov. able, environmentally friendly products; Monumental changes in stock dynam- Bill Walker created the Mariculture Task sustainable economic support for local ics, regulatory changes and market driv- Force to produce and provide recom- communities; and revenue for the state. en realities have fundamentally changed mendations for how to “develop a viThere are still hurdles, like the develAlaskan fisheries. able and sustainable mariculture industry opment of in-state facilities to produce Regulatory changes have stabilized producing shellfish and aquatic plants for spat and seed of sufficient quantities to and created a reliable, safer and sustain- the long term benefit of Alaska’s econo- supply a growing industry and providing able fishery. Cod, herring, salmon and my, environment and communities.” outreach and education to teach people other species are cyclical, but the manThe Task Force’s recommendations for how to develop these operations, but agement regimes for each are remark- a final and comprehensive plan are due they are not insurmountable. ably stable and sustainable and set the March 1, 2018. Each of these concepts As my friend so succinctly put it, standard for management the world over. expressly precludes farming anything mariculture in Alaska is the single largest Historically, we harvested pink shrimp with a fin. No salmon or any other fin- untapped fisheries resource in the world. and king crab in the Gulf of Alaska. fish species can be farmed, as it remains, Alaska already produces 50 percent of Blackcod were once discards and a low- and should remain, illegal in Alaska. Ad- the nation’s seafood. It is uniquely povalue species, but have risen to the top ditionally, state law precludes the propa- sitioned to be the largest producer of as one of the most valuable products, gation of species that are not indigenous aquatic plants and shellfish in the world, on a per pound basis, that we produce. to Alaska (the Pacific oyster is the one and fishermen can lead that developPollock went from a primarily foreign exception). ment, if they choose to take the yoke.

The next boom in Alaska

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“

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

”

YOUNGBLOODS

Education on the fly Reid Brewer is the program director for the University of Alaska Southeast Fisheries Technology (Fish Tech) Program. He just completed his doctorate in marine biology and also has a bachelor’s from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

BY REID BREWER

H

ave you ever thought about how to explore working in fisheries?

Maybe the bigger question is, if you did, how you could go back to school to be able to make that move? If you have found yourself asking these questions, the University of Alaska Southeast Fisheries Technology program may have a solution for you.

The goal of Fish Tech program is to offer our students an information base and skill set that will serve them in the fisheries industry while being flexible to suit their needs. The Fish Tech program offers classes live face to face, live over the Internet, and semi-asynchronously with students completing coursework at their own pace without regular meetings. The program has two main emphasis areas: fisheries management and Alaska salmon enhancement and offers a variety of degrees to include 13 credit occupational endorsements, 33 credit certificates and a 60-credit associate’s of applied science. Since all of the credits for the occupational endorsements transfer to the certificate and associate’s programs, many students are able to take classes at a slower

pace, beginning with an occupational endorsement with the option to go to the next level. Many of the Fish Tech graduates have gone on to work with Alaska Department of Fish and Game, various private, nonprofit aquaculture associations, tribal organizations, and other government and nonprofit programs.

In 2014, the Fish Tech program was funded by a grant from the Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training program to offer Fish Tech curriculum using innovative teaching technology to make all the classes available on iPads. All of the lectures, reading materials, videos, frequently asked questions and even exams are loaded on the iPad, so coursework can be taken to a remote location without Internet access. Brig Malessa, a former Fish Tech student from Cake, who had to drop classes as a result of poor bandwidth said, “This is an absolute game changer for those of us that live remote! I had pretty much given up on the idea of classes for the time being — not anymore!”

In summer 2016, 33 students took three classes using the iPad format, and coming fall 2016, all six of the Fish

Tech OE courses will be available on iPads.

“The beauty of these classes is students of all types can take these classes from almost anywhere,” says Joel Markis, a Fish Tech faculty member. “Not only do we have students from all over Alaska taking our classes, but we also have many students in the contiguous United States taking our classes. And because our iPad classes are semi-asynchronous [students have to call in to get exam passwords and discuss content three times a semester], they allow us to work with students that may not be able to meet during traditional semesters or cannot meet at a fixed time each week, like seasonal employees, deployed servicemen and fishermen.”

Though many of the Fish Tech students take classes via distance delivery either online or via iPads, the program does require a hands-on component, which can be met by taking one-credit intensive labs that are taught each semester at hub locations throughout the state of Alaska or in the form of internships that can be done almost anywhere.

“I have been to big universities that offer only face-to-face classes and have dabbled on online courses, but the UAS Fish Tech program is different from all of the others,” says Alex Lyons, a 2016 Fish Tech associate’s graduate. “From the flexibility of online and iPad classes to faculty engagement to job placement assistance, the Fish Tech program is doing education the way it should be, with students’ needs first.”

For more information see www.fishtechalaska. com or call the program director, Reid Brewer at (907) 747-7799.

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SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

19

ON THE HOMEFRONT

In the Dungie dungeon Lori French is the founder of Faces of California Fishing in Morro Bay.

BY LORI FRENCH

T

NOAA

here’s a children’s book called “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” and I think we just had one or 155-plus of ’em here in California with the Dungeness season. Our season was closed with no warning by the Department of Fish and Wildlife in early November for domoic acid levels in the crab, and I, like many others, figured, “Oh hell. We’ll be open

by December.” And then December rolled around…

Crabbers had a hard time paying their bills when they were forced to tie up.

In December, the Old Man of the Sea was home for my birthday — a novelty for sure. He gave me a gift that didn’t require cooking, and it was wrapped with a bow, and I didn’t believe him.

The Tall Ones confirmed that Dad had wrapped it by himself. They watched because they’d never seen this happen before.

By mid-December, things were just looking bleak. Crab crews on Facebook were posting ads looking for work.

Guys were doing odd jobs to get by, because crab season was going to open right? A week before Christmas, I got the crazy idea to help out a bit and bounced my idea off the other Central Coast Women for Fisheries, we started a Crabber’s Emergency Relief Fund on 20

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

GoFundMe to get some grocery money to our crews.

I started brooding extra chicks for my egg business, as my egg business was now our grocery money. “The chickens will provide” became a household battle cry. The main topic or the only topic of conversation between crabbers was, “Did you see the new numbers?” or “Do you know if they’re testing the crab?”

The California Department of Public Health was supposed to test the crab from each harbor weekly. A fisherman from each harbor brought in six crab, which were transported to the only lab in the state. That worked out as well as me fitting in a size 4 pair of jeans.

Storms prevented some test runs, the lab got backed up when they did get the crab, and apparently the government goes home at 5 o’clock and celebrates little things like holidays.

And then came January. What comes after bleak? My email box was filling up daily with requests for grocery cards from the relief fund. And then I started getting Facebook messages for help, and my cell number got out into the world. I was looking into food banks for commercial fishermen up and down the coast. I was looking into food stamp requirements and Salvation Army information. Families were getting turned down for help because they made too much money last year. The Old Man of the Sea started reading the emails to make sure I got all the names down on the list. He kept his ear to the ground for those who might need help.

Captains were calling to make sure their crews were on the list. It was beyond heartbreaking.

Things in our house weren’t all roses either. Our oldest son is our crew, and he had moved home in the summer while looking for a place to rent. The summer was difficult because of the drought, which brought extra expenses, and the Old Man of the Sea had surgery. Then our youngest son got laid off and moved home. We had a pretty decent savings account, or so I thought.

The Old Man of the Sea started call-

ing me his Executive Wife and making a traveling breakfast for me when I headed out the door to work. (I have a real, almost full-time job for health insurance.) Since I’m the political voice of the family, I was going to meetings, listening to meetings and giving interviews. I’m pretty sure someone wrote my name on a bathroom wall, “If you want an interview call…”

In other harbors people were kicking into high gear with fundraisers, campaigns to get the harbors to give slip rent relief. Bodega Bay-Spud Point led the charge and opened a food bank for crabbers in the laundry room. In Crescent City, extreme couponers opened a food bank at a church for just crabbers.

In Fort Bragg a crabber took it upon himself to ask local businesses for donations and gift cards to the grocery stores while in ill health himself. These people cared! Phone calls were flying back and forth between harbors on the politics and the situation of who needed what.

When the media got wind of the crab closure back in November they picked the story up and ran with it. How can we paint this as bad and make it worse seemed to be the main goal. “If you eat crab you will die!” “Poisonous crab!”

Each headline just hammered into our consumer confidence. And so it went on and on.

We moved into February. Blacker than black. The Crabber’s Emergency Relief Fund had a waiting list. Crabbers were losing their homes, their boats were on the line, crews were leaving to find land jobs, trucks were being repossessed. A bunch of us went to Sacramento and testified. I ended the political career I never wanted before it even started by telling the senators, “It’s bullshit when the very people who provide food have to ask for food.” It was and still is.

In our house, my living room had been rearranged, paintings had been rehung (twice), my pantry had been cleaned and organized, along with my spice cabinet by the Oldest Tall One. The Old Man of the Sea had taken over my chicken business completely. Things were getting done around the ranch that had needed to be done for years.

The Old Man of the Sea had taken over his mother’s care and was a regular fixture at the beauty shop and the grocery store. I knew it was bad when he started

ON THE HOMEFRONT telling me the beauty shop gossip. Another crabber’s wife and I were talking about getting Uber jobs or opening a room for AirBnB. In March, the mood was just ugly.

Fishermen were angry. The test numbers were down, then up and so on.

Hopes were raised and dashed again and again. The meetings were brutal, harbor against harbor when the state reopened an area for sport crabbing. Lines were being drawn. “Do we open area by area, or stick with the traditional lines?” Areas that had tested clean were still closed, waiting for the other areas to clean up.

Anger, frustration, friends turning on friends. All because of a number, the amount of domoic acid in the crab that most fishermen considered to be unrealistic.

Late in March, we got the all clear in the same half-assed way the rest of the season had gone down. Our buyers were caught off guard, and the weather had turned to crap. But we were finally opening in the lower part of the state.

I was at work when I got the fax from Bodega. I cried out of shear relief, until I realized that this was not for all of us.

Once the crab was quality tested, the price was set, and guys took off. Meanwhile, in the background, a media event was planned in San Francisco to assure our consumers that the crab was indeed good. And then we all started watching the numbers for northern California.

Those guys could just not catch a freakin’ break until late May when they got their all clear in an even more half-assed fashion.

This entire Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Crab season opened my eyes to a few things (Crab Wife on Fish Box here): 1. Those who make the decisions in our state really don’t give a flying hoot about the people who are actually affected by their decisions.

They can go home on Friday nights with their $150,000 tax dollar salary still coming. 2. We need a Crab Council to promote our crab. 3. We need a real testing protocol. 4. We need real science, not grant-driven B.S. science for the levels of domoic acid. 5. And no my husband cannot go and get a “real” job.

We have a business that we love. Crab Wife stepping off the fish box now. I never ever want to live through a season like this again.

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THE H LONG HAUL HE

Konrad Uri is one of the founders of the Bering Sea crab fishery and a 1981 National Fisherman Highliner.

By KONRAD URI

I

t was the summer of 1986, and we were fishing Greenland turbot in Seguam Pass with the Arctic Trawler. I had varied crew aboard the vessel, including longstanding employees, my 20-year-old son Kris, his friends from the University of Washington, Matt Emmons a Woodway High School friend included, my youngest son Karl (11), Glenn and Scott Penny (their mother was a co-worker at Boeing with my wife Helen’s sister), former Seattle Sounders Defender Mike England’s son Wayne, and Pat Dedmore fresh out of the California Maritime Academy as first mate.

It was a great time, fishing was fantastic, and prices were good. This was directly contrary to the previous year when we had been fishing pollock and times were, well, not so good.

For those who don’t know, the Arctic Trawler (ex-Seafreeze Atlantic) is a

and we were making fine money.

Seguam Pass, between Amlia Island and Seguam Island, is known for prime fishing grounds and unfortunately a rocky bottom. This made for a good learning opportunity for the University of Washington crew that learned to cut and sew web like pros (read three bar, two bar, two bar… three bar). We had eight nets aboard, and we tore up every tow; the longstanding crew and young college guys had a helluva time keeping up!

My sons were busy, working alongside me, as had been our family tradi-

historical vessel in the United States.

Dubbed the Ship of Fools by National Fisherman magazine back in the 1970s when it was the Seafreeze Atlantic, the vessel was a pioneer as the first retrofitted factory trawler to make its way as the Arctic Trawler (all the way from Norfolk Virginia where The Arctic Trawler, once dubbed the Ship of Fools by it had been mothNational Fisherman, navigates Seguam Pass in 1986. balled by the failed Ship of Fools crew) to the Pacific cod fishery of the North tion dating back to the Rainier (see my Pacific and Bering Sea in 1980. previous articles, “Dutch Treat,” NPF 1986 was really the last good-times Fall 2015 and “Bering Birthday,” NPF summer aboard the fine vessel. I had Summer 2015). Karl at 11 years old was half my family aboard with their friends, working between the factory and the

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NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

Konrad Uri

A vessel of evolution

THE LONG HAUL

“

We had eight nets aboard, and we

tore up every tow.

”

galley; Kris, at 20, was our winch driver and deckhand.

Because of the market conditions at the time, we were targeting Greenland turbot and packing in an H&G format (headed and gutted in 20-kilogram frozen blocks). This made the factory crew happy, as well, as it was much simpler than the fillets of pollock and cod that we had done in previous years. And the cherry on top of the sundae was the weekly tow of blackcod (sablefish) that upped the weekly revenue considerably.

pended on it. Which they did — this was serious business. I am pleased to see many of the people I’ve had the good fortune to work with continue to make a living in the fishing industry. Of course, my children are all currently involved in the industry, Scott Penny is a longline captain at Clipper Seafoods, Glenn is a deckhand between Pollock C/Vs and A80 trawlers, and Pat Dedmore is an officer aboard American Seafoods’ Ocean Rover. There were many others, and I hope to write more of the experiences we shared.

When we look back upon the experience of fishing together as a family and in a fleet that treated each other like family, I have nothing but the fondest memories, no matter how hard we were actually working.

66’ SHALLOW DRAFT TENDER

EXPERT SHIP REPAIR

Konrad Uri

NEW BUILDS, REFITS AND REPAIR

Konrad, Kris and Karl Uri aboard the Arctic Trawler in 1986.

Unfortunately, the good times would come to an end as the previous year’s downturn during the pollock fishery had driven home the decision to sell the vessel. Longtime General Manager Mike Nordby took the helm at Arctic King, and the vessel was converted yet again — this time into a surimi trawler. She later was reflagged into the Soviet Union as the Polarniy and now has come full circle back to the H&G fishery as the Seafreeze Alaska, currently operated by United States Seafoods (which happens to be part of the Amendment 80 fleet that my son Kris is also active in as GM at Fishermen’s Finest).

Fishing has been my life — we were in this together (family, friends and friends of family) and worked as if our lives de-

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23

MAKING THE RULES

Monumental mess

edged existing regulations but dismissed them as “not permanent.” Permanent deep-sea protections “would complement those offered by California’s landmark coastal network of marine protected areas,” the proposal argued.

This “would leave a powerful legacy of ocean protection for present and future generations.”

Needless to say, the proposal instantly mobilized California’s fishing community. As fishery representatives dug deeper, a disturbing pattern emerged.

A nationwide campaign to designate important offshore fishing grounds as monuments under the Antiquities Act is underway, sponsored by well-heeled protectionist groups. We learned that the White House wants to make a major announcement in October and efforts on the East Coast, West Coast and Hawaii may all be related.

On the East Coast, fishermen learned about an underground plan to designate Cashes Ledge as a monument under the Antiquities Act. That plan met with stiff opposition, ultimately prompting President Obama to declare Cashes Ledge off the table. But representatives of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Conservation Law Foundation continue to call for the president to use the Antiquities Act to designate marine monuments in productive fishing grounds off the coast of New England.

A similar brouhaha now engulfs the proposal to quadruple the size of the existing Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Fishermen created a website to oppose the action at FishingMeansFood.com and appeals to readers to “Protect Hawaii’s Access to Fish… preserve our local food source.”

In California, after fishermen uncovered the plot, consultants for the chief proponent, Marine Conservation Institute, began reaching out to select fishing groups, dangling the lure that recreational fishing would be allowed,

D.B. Pleschner is the executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association and coordinated the coalition of fishing interests whose future access to productive seamounts and banks is in jeopardy.

July 6, 2016 The President The White House Washington, DC 20500

BY D.B. PLESCHNER

Dear President Obama:

A

new proposal being circulated, until recently behind closed doors, threatens our fishing economy and food security.

On July 6, more than 40 California groups representing the state’s fishing communities wrote to President Obama opposing the designation of California offshore monuments that prohibit fishing. The letter urged the president to heed Congressional mandate and his administration’s own ocean policies, which promise transparency, scientific analysis and “robust stakeholder engagement.”

Impetus for the letter was an unsigned proposal, “The Case for Protecting California’s Seamounts, Ridges and Banks,” that we learned was being circulated in the California Legislature, promoting permanent protection for California’s highly productive offshore mounts, banks and ridges as designated monuments under the Antiquities Act. The problem? No one bothered to talk with the people most affected by this plan — the fishermen. Moreover, the plan was created with no outreach to fisheries scientists or managers in NOAA, NMFS or the Pacific Fishery Management Council, much less fishermen. Federal fishery management mandated by Congress under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires the use of best available science and peer-reviewed analysis conducted in a fully public and

We are writing to express our opposition to the recent and banks off the coast proposal to declare virtually of California as monume all offshore seamounts, nts under the Antiquities ridges commercial fishing. The Act, and permanently close document “The Case for these areas to Protecting and advanced behind closed doors with no public peer-rev California’s Seamounts, Ridges and Banks” was public engagement. drafted iewed scientific analysis, no NEPA analysis, and virtually no We discovered this secret effort after pursuing rumors, sensational, inaccurate and found the justificat statements and omission ion for this proposed action s. The economic analysis is filled with the importance and value for the proposed closures of the identified seamoun grossly ts, ridges and banks to simple ex-vessel value is fisheries and fishing commun understates the opportunity cost of losing these productive ities. Beyond fishing grounds forever.

All the seamounts and banks in the proposal are important for fisheries. and our fisheries are a well-man Fisheries provide healthy aged renewable resource food for people, important for many fisheries . Tanner and Cortes Banks, : tunas, swordfish, rockfish, in southern California, are species including mackere critically spiny lobster, sea urchins, ls, bonito and market squid. white seabass and coastal important albacore tuna pelagic In northern California, Gorda fishing opportunities to and Mendocino Ridges portfolio provide to rely on Chinook salmon and Dungeness crab fisheries fishermen who, for the past few seasons, have been unable Passenger Fishing Vessel . Moreover, these areas (CPFV) fleet, which are are essential for the Commer licensed commercial fishing to commercial fishing would cial boats. Closure of these also deny access to the important areas CPFV fleet and would cause fishermen, seafood processo disastrous economic impacts rs and allied businesses, fishing communities and to the West Coast fishing economy.

California has the most strictly regulated fisheries in the world. Precautionary federal waters exist under policies for protecting resource the federal Magnuson-Steven other bipartisan laws, such s s Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), in as the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endange based analysis conduct and many ed in a fully public and transpar red Species Act, which require scienceent process.

In contrast, the Antiquit ies Act is a unilateral action.

This proposal was develope managers in NOAA, NMFS, d with no outreach to fisheries the Pacific Fishery Manage ment Council, or fisherme Act to designate marine protected areas as monume n. Further, the use of the Antiquities nts in open ocean waters policies set forth in the panoply of Federal laws is in the US – even this Administ inconsistent with the nation’s ocean which promises “Robust ration’s own National Ocean stakehol Policy Plan, using a land-oriented Presiden der engagement and public participation. “ Adopting the proposed tial order goes against monuments the bipartisan legacy of programs and policies, the nation’s ocean environm whose hallmark is transpar ency, and which have a protect marine resource long track record of working ent laws, s. successfully to We ask you to stop the creation of these Californi a offshore monuments status is irreversible, and under the Antiquities Act the Antiquities Act process because monument involves no science, no parties who will be most public involvement nor affected by this unilatera outreach to the l action – no transparency.

We ask you to inform the White House Council on Environmental Quality Interior that you oppose as well as the Secretaries the creation of these monume of Commerce and Committee, signed by all nts and support the resolutio eight regional Fishery Manage n of the Council Coordina continue to be impleme ment Councils, that fishery tion nted under the MSA. management in the US EEZ should Thank you for your attention .

Respectfully,

/s/

More than 40 California groups signed the letter addressed to President Obama on offshore monuments.

transparent process.

In contrast, the Antiquities Act is a unilateral action: one stroke of the president’s pen and the monument and all its restrictions are permanent, irreversible. Certainly not transparent.

California already has the most strictly regulated fisheries in the world, including a statewide network of marine protected areas, many of them no-take marine reserves. Further, precautionary policies and processes exist for protecting resources in federal waters under Magnuson and many other bipartisan laws. Most of the areas specified in the proposal were already designated as Essential Fish Habitat, with bottom trawling prohibited.

The monument proposal acknowl-

24

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

MAKING THE RULES

Monterey Commercial Fishermen’s Association

only commercial fishing would be pro- said he was consulting for the propo- Murray, reassured Monterey harborhibited. nents), shopped around Capitol Hill. master Steve Scheiblauer in an email But recreational fishing groups did The proposal included a letter to Cali- exchange: “1) this is not an “official” not bite the bait: “This is a big deal,” fornia Sen. Barbara Boxer sponsored by proposal yet and 2) it’s not for a marine said Dan Wolford, president of Coast- MCI and signed by 210 scientists, none reserve.” She concluded, “The vision is side Fishing Club and former chairman of them fishery scientists or managers, that specific sites for inclusion, regulaof the Pacific Fishery Management advocating for “strong protections,” and tions, etc., would be developed through Council. “Even though the recreational noting “compelling evidence that fully a public process that would include fishery might get a bye, I am upset about protected marine reserves are powerful tribes, fishermen and other stakeholdthe lack of public process and the cir- ways of conserving biodiversity.” ers.” cumvention of the council/MSA proHowever, in an article that appeared That is precisely our point: We alcess.” ready have a robust, A letter jointly signed science-based, peer reby Coastside to the federal No one bothered to talk with the people viewed, public process Council on Environmenembodied in Magnutal Quality stated: “Given most affected by this plan — the fishermen. son through the Pacific the success of the existing Fishery Management fisheries management proCouncil. We have a cess, it is unclear why additional fishing in Nature (July, 14, 2016), preeminent panoply of bipartisan laws and conregulations outside of the MSA process fishery scientist Dr. Ray Hilborn point- gressional mandates that govern fishare appropriate or warranted.” ed out that sound fisheries management ery management –– and we have the MCI’s initial proposal has since been protects biodiversity over an entire administration’s own National Ocean sanitized but still urged designation EEZ, and does so much better than set- Policy plan that promises transparency. of offshore seamounts as monuments ting aside some fraction of the EEZ in “Commercial fishing is important to under the Antiquities Act and prohi- MPAs. Closing off a patchwork of areas Monterey,” Scheiblauer said. “It conbitions on commercial fishing. We ob- without scientific analysis or economic tributes greatly to both our economy tained a copy that Washington state Sen. assessment is not sound management and culture of the region. The city also Kevin Ranker, a member of President practice. strongly supports the science-based Obama’s Ocean Policy Council (who Another MCI consultant, Samantha Continued on page 35

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25

GEAR SHIFTS

NOTHING BUT NETS

cumulates, it makes the net more visible to the salmon and easier to avoid. “Your net fishes best when it’s brand new and in the water for the first time,” says Webber. “The first week or two is the best; everybody knows this. But over the course of a summer or a season, everything gets dirty, and you see degradation on the web. However, you can more fully optimize the efficiency of that web by keeping it clean.”

For quite a few years, Webber used a water sprayer mounted on his power bow roller to help remove the silt as the net came over the roller. “I think I was the first to start building them into the rollers — now you see lots of homemade PVC pipe arrangements — but these aren’t that effective, maybe 10-15 percent at best.”

His next step was relocating the sprayers from the roller on the rail back to the net reel where they are incorporated into the levelwind. “I made these one-piece

Alaska gillnet washer and the seines of Spain

“If I can push a button or pull a lever instead of doing something by hand,

”

I’m going to do it.

Bill Webber’s netwasher prototype takes care of silt build-ups and keep gillnets as good as new.

Bill WeBBe eBBer

— Bill Webber

BY BRUCE BULS

B

ill Webber likes to catch salmon, and he likes to, as he puts it, “tinker.”

“If I can push a button or pull a lever instead of doing something by hand, I’m going to do it. I’m really into that kind of stuff,” he says.

That kind of stuff includes designing and fabricating everything from power net rollers to salmon gutting trays to building boats themselves.Webber’s shop, Webber Marine & Manufacturing, is lo-

26

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

cated in Cordova, Alaska, and he fishes his bowpicker on the Copper River flats for about five months a year.

“This year has been my 49th season,” he says, “and I’m hoping for another 20.”

Webber also processes and direct-markets his salmon, but that’s another story.

This story is about one of his tinkering projects, the netwasher.

Gillnetting near river mouths often means fishing in water with a lot of silt, which can cling to and build up on the net. And as the silt and other debris ac-

elliptical rings for the front and the back next to the rollers that blast high-pressure water as the net goes through the levelwind. Those worked out very well.

The drawback to that version was you had to pull the net all the way in to get it out of the levelwind. You couldn’t lift it up and out whenever you wanted to, which was a problem for some people, and I understand. So now I’ve made adjustments to allow that.”

Another change was adding brushes to both the front and back of the levelwind/netwasher assembly.

“The brushes serve a couple purposes,” says Webber. “One, they act as sort of a raincoat, if you will, as they help contain the water inside the rollers as the net passes through. The brushes also agitate the web as it comes through and gets the high-pressure water blast.” Webber says he’s experimented with several sets

GEAR SHIFTS

DaviD O’Neill

of different brushes, and the ones photos until Gonzales “finally that work best act as a curtain, figured out how to make a maso most of the water and whatchine to make the loops autoever it washes from the net fall matically.” straight down to the deck.

“Having the loops integrated And as silt on the net is a probwill save a lot of time and a lot lem, so are jellyfish. Webber says of money for fishermen,” says the net washer gets maybe 20 to O’Neill. “The ladies in Spain Women work on 25 percent of them off, but he were thrilled to see it because large fishing nets figures there’s a better way. So they hate putting hangings on, as in Markina, Spain. he’s been back at his CAD prodo the guys in this country.” gram working on a design to be preci- loose more often.

The loops are made of Dyneema twine sion-cut offsite and assembled at Webber Searching for a solution, O’Neill col- for strength and durability, and the rope is Marine in Cordova, like all of his inven- laborated with a company in the Basque made from high-tenacity polyester. Spactions and innovations. region of Spain that designs and manu- ing for the loops can be adjusted. “Ko“It’s an entirely different design,” he factures all kind of ropes for fishing gear. diak fishermen will probably want the says, “but it will also have netwashing It’s called Itsaskorda, and he learned about frequent spacing [as seen in the photo], capability built into it as well. I hope to it in Spain by talking with women work- while Southeast fishermen will probably further develop the jellyfish option this ing on large fishing nets. “It’s their pro- want half as many loops.” fall and winter. It will also go on the lev- fession, they’re very proud of it,” he says.

The new product was just starting to elwind. A lot of people will look at it and The company they recommended, It- be manufactured late this past summer, scratch their heads, but I think it should saskorda, is in a small Spanish town called but O’Neill expects it to ready for next work.”

Markina and is owned by Manu Gon- season. “We’ll have some at Pacific MaCheck out Webber Marine, on zales and his wife, Begoña. “It’s a fami- rine Expo in Seattle.”

Facebook. ly-owned corporation, even their two daughters work with them.”

Bruce Buls is the former technical editor for LOOPY LEADLINE O’Neill and Gonzales traded ideas and WorkBoat magazine.

The urge to improve fishing gear also runs from Vashon Island, Wash., to Markina, Spain. The gear connecting them — and seiners everywhere — is a new leadline with woven-in hanging loops. Traditionally, a seine’s webbing is laced onto twine “hangings” that have to be individually knotted. “It’s really hard work,” says David O’Neill, owner of Gannet Nets, a seine-specialty company based on Vashon Island, between EXPERTS IN MARINE ELECTRICAL Seattle and Tacoma. “You gotta snap your arm and shoulder every time you AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS set the knot, and they still come undone.”

Looking at the changing O’Neill says the hangings used to break marketplace as an opportunity more frequently, so people started using to create innovative solutions heavier, stronger twine, but that is more to help companies power their difficult to get tight, so they start getting fleet, find their catch,

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27

BOATBUILDING

TENDER FIT FOR A KING Homer’s Bay Welding Services turns out the 50-foot aluminum King Island for Norton Sound Text

O

n June 10, the 50-foot design,” Engebretsen adds. “We used tender King Island was the general shape but modified the ready to begin summer deck layout and cabin features to fit the services in the Norton needs of a tender.”

Sound region of Alaska for the Norton The Norton Sound corporation is Sound Economic Development Cor- one of six western Alaska Commuporation. nity Development Quota groups. The Bay Welding Services and Bay Weld group has offices in Anchorage, Nome Boats, in Homer, Alaska, designed and and Unalakleet and serves 15 commubuilt the tender for the Norton Sound nities throughout the Norton Sound Engine room accessibility was a corporation, which has three process- and Bering Strait region. The corpora- keystone in the King Island design. ing plants, four buying stations and a tion operates its plants, buying stations fleet of seven tenders in Norton Sound, and tenders in support of regional crab, 50' x 20' x 4' aluminum vessel hit the to buy and process salmon, red king salmon and halibut commercial fish- grounds running in Norton Sound on crab and halibut. They needed another eries as part of its mission to provide June 10. tender, and they wanted a boat that economic development to its member The Bay Welding crew homed in on would operate with packing stability communities. a design that will be easy to use, yet in exceptionally shalpractical to maintain. low water.

They turned that vi“They gave us a lot It’s really fun to drive. This boat turns sion over to Coastwise “of room to propose to Corporation, owned perfectly flat. It handles like a big seine skiff. them what we thought and operated by Pat would make a great Eberhart, in Anchorboat plan. They really — Eric Engebretsen, Bay Welding Services age to ensure the boat didn’t hem us in on the met structural engidesign. We got to really think outside The corporation signed a contract neering requirements and stability certhe box and to fully design something with Bay Weld Boats on June 1, 2015. tifications. for them. We got to dream it up,” says Engineering and design started right “This is the biggest 50-foot boat you Eric Engebretsen, general manager for away, construction began in October, could make to stay in their design but Bay Welding Services. and the boat launched almost exactly also follow boat classing rules,” Enge“The hull of the boat is our seiner a year later, on May 23, 2016. The bretsen explains. The boat was de-

“

28

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

”

Courtesy of Bay Welding

BY EMILIE SPRINGER

HOMER RUN

THE BAY WELDING WAY

A

llen Engebretsen founded Bay Welding Services in Homer, Alaska, in 1974. He and his wife, Linda, are still an active part of the family-owned company.

General Manager Eric Engebretsen has been working for his dad at Bay Welding full time for almost 15 years, but his life has always revolved around boats and fishing. He is now in charge of the operations, production scheduling, materials management and technical design.

The business takes pride in hiring local Homer employees to make up a staff with a wide range of expertise.

“We have a great team of people around me at the business. They are all experts at what they do,” Engebretsen explains.

The company is still growing. They built their hundredth boat in 2013 and had completed 173 boats in April 2016. The shop has recently added a service road to connect their shop more directly to the 75ton boat lift service at the Northern Enterprises Boat

l cently added Yard. It has also recently several subsidiary companies, including Otto Machine Works and North West Signs and Vinyl. The company currently has about 30 staff.

The Norton Sound corporation chose Bay Welding as part of their commitment to supporting other Alaskan businesses.

“We are a solid company, we’re growing, we have a great reputation. But we’d never completed anything of this scale, and they gave us the chance,” Engebretsen explains.

As much as the crew at Bay Welding Services enjoyed the opportunity to build a bigger boat and to take on more big projects, they have no intention of stopping construction of their specialty smaller boats. The first boat the yard put out was a 20-foot skiff, and they intend to maintain the ability to meet their clients’ — E.S. needs, whatever the size.

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29

BOATBUILDING INSIDE

KING ISLAND

signed before the classification rules for boats 50 to 79 feet were suspended.

Even with its compact size, a tender’s effectiveness relies on capacity, maneuverability and lines of sight.

“We paid a lot of attention to visibility within the wheelhouse,” Engebretsen says. “We especially wanted to be sure crew would be able to see the deck well because boats would arrive to unload on both sides of the vessel. A clear line of sight to the deck is a critical safety feature, so confirming sight lines was a key construction point.”

Another key design objective was to reduce noise levels in the wheelhouse, so everything critical is in the stern:

The belowdeck alley leads to the engine in the stern for easy access.

30

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

Wheelhouse visibility is key for a tender that receives on both sides.

engines, generator, refrigeration. This feature also contributes to the boat’s balance.

“The King Island is incredibly stable,” Engebretsen says. “A lot of boats will trim real heavy to the stern when tanked down,” he explains. “This boat is straight up and down. From an engineering and design standpoint, it is literally a more balanced design plan to have all the machinery weight in the back.”

The King Island design also made room for a belowdeck alley to the engine in the stern, so the crew can access the equipment without going on deck or squeezing into small spaces. The result is that the engine room can be accessed from two points.

The organization has a couple of boats on which some crew members cannot easily access necessary machinery, so that limitation became a critical component of the design process. Remote accessibility to key systems was another mainstay.

“We’re trying to integrate respectable, contemporary technology with all of our projects. We can control everything, the entire boat, from a single circuit panel. Every battery switching, every lighting circuit, the bilge pump, alarms, it all happens here. The generator switch and RSW features are on

• Boatbuilder: Bay Welding Services, Homer, Alaska • Designer: Coastwise Corp., Anchorage, and Bay Weld Boats, Homer • Owner: Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation, Anchorage, Nome and Unalakleet, Alaska • Material: Aluminum • Dimensions: 50' x 20' x 4' • Wheelhouse plating: 3/16 inches thick • Hull plating: 5/16" bottom, 1/4" sides, 1/4" transom • Main deck plating: 1/4" main deck • Stem: 3/4" plate stem • Keel: 3/4" keel with 1" x 4" shoe • Longitudinal frames: 1/4" longitudinal frames on 11-inch spacing • Transverse frames: 1/4" on 42inch spacing • Bulkheads: 1/4" • Powertrain: 2 John Deere 6090 AFMs @ 425 hp, keel cooled, dry exhaust • Marine gear: 2 ZF 325IVs with 2.5:1 reduction • Shaft: 2.5-inch AQ 22HS, stainless • Prop: 32" x 25" pitch four-blade stainless Z-track propellers in tunnels • Speed: 8 knots economy cruise at 1,450 rpm/1 mpg 10 knots fast cruise at 1,850 rpm/0.5 mpg 12.5 knots top speed at 2,400 rpm • Weight: 69,300 pounds with full fuel and freshwater tanks • Fish hold: 268 cubic feet in each of four holds, 1,072 cubic feet total • Fuel capacity: 1,375 gallons • Freshwater capacity: 250 gallons • RSW System: IMS 18-ton electric with dual Flowmax 3x3 circulation pumps for crab tanks • Generator: Northern Lights 65kW 120/208V 3Ph, Keel cooled, dry exhaust

The galley includes a full-size stove that is easy to be replaced.

chest freezer, washing machine and dryer, and a water heater. The vessel lavatory is also accessible both from the inside cabin and from the main deck.

“When I was fishing I thought it would be the best thing ever if you did not need to take all of your rain gear off to get in the head. We designed around that idea,” Engebretsen explains.

Safety and comfort are not the only benefits of the boat’s design. The King Island moves crab with elevators to improve product quality. Each of its four fish holds is lined with a basket with a post in the center, like a colander.

“We can pick it up without anyone getting into the hold, so you never have to get down in and pitch crab,” Engebretsen explains. “It’s a quality control

component, and this is the second one of their boats that has this. It was their clever idea, requested specifically. I think it’s a very smart idea to keep the crab from getting broken legs and shells. No one ever has to stand in them.”

The deck is flat, and its side rails have removable paneling that improves ease of the tender’s skiff deliveries.

On top of all that? “It’s really fun to drive,” Engebretsen adds. “You can be going full speed and turn hard over, and usually we’re taught not to do that. But this boat turns perfectly flat. It handles like a big seine skiff.”

Emilie Springer is an anthropology Ph.D. candidate at University of Alaska at Fairbanks, focusing on cultural components of fishing.

this panel.You don’t have to go into the engine to turn the battery switches on to turn the engine on.”

The galley includes a full-size stove.

“We ordered this through Home Depot, so when it fails they can just acquire another and install it,” Engebretsen explains. “This is a real stove.

“This is all simply painted aluminum,” he says of the surfaces. “There is nothing that can really go wrong. There is a solid surface top (not wood), so it won’t swell. Basically nothing can happen to that. Everything is the same color all the way through, so as it wears it will look the same. Everything else is 100 percent composite plastic, so nothing can really fail, ever.”

Crew comforts include a full-size

“We’re trying to integrate respectable,

”

contemporary technology with all of our projects.

— Eric Engebretsen, Bay Welding Services Crew comforts include a new washing machine, dryer and a water heater.

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

31

CREW LIFE

FAMILY PORTRAIT Alaska’s Anderson clan finds definition and identity in a moment captured on a record-breaking 30-minute herring set

BY WHITNEY ANDERSON • PHOTOS ANDERSON FAMILY COLLECTION

I

t was 1988, the end of spring and only got so much out of it — as a result My dad comes from a rich lineage the dawn of summer in Togiak, of weather, crew, risky decisions, things of tough, hard-working patriarchs and Alaska, as fishermen were lined up beyond his control. strong-willed matriarchs. He started eagerly awaiting the start of herMy dad’s golden catch fell on the 10th working the skiff at age 12 for his dad’s ring season. With boat. One hundred only a half-hour years ago and 5,000 window to set on miles away in Scanfish that day, herring dinavia, my greatseining was one of g reat-g randf ather, the shortest and most Oscar Lindholm, intense fisheries out signed up to be a there — no place for seafarer at the age amateurs. One of the of 13. Born Sept.

239 captains wait28, 1863, on Aland, ing to pounce was an island off the 30-year-old Dean southwest coast of Anderson on his Finland, Oscar spent boat the Susan Gale, years working on a 49-foot fiberglass ships before he sailed beauty named after to America. He later my mother. Within jumped ship in San those 30 minutes, The Susan Gale sets on a record catch of herring in Togiak, Alaska, on May 17, 1988.

Francisco and wasted my dad would make one off the h largest l anniversary i off hi his ffather’s h ’ fatal f l midair id i no time i getting i involved with the Alaska sets in herring history: 660 tons worth plane collision in the same region. My Packer’s Association (started in 1891) $600,000, a job that would take 11 ten- grandfather Raymond, also a fisherman, and lucrative fur trapping going on up ders and 48 hours to pump out. was a spotter pilot who contributed north. Oscar soon made his way to AlasThere was no Internet, just one cam- to discovering new herring grounds ka to work as a fisherman and a trapper, era and a few fishermen to witness the in 1978. Out of that horrible tragedy eventually settling in Chignik Lagoon. scene. Serene yet so powerful, sentimen- would come this picture 10 years later, There, he would marry a native Aleut tal, nostalgic — those are the words that reigniting the legacy of herring explora- woman named Anne Stepanov Phillips, come to mind when I gaze at this snap- tion my grandfather left behind. have five children and help pioneer the shot of one of the largest herring sets Chignik salmon fishery for generations ever made. Almost 30 years later, we still of families to come. reflect on this family gem: an immortalI found out later through my dad that ization of commercial fishing at its prime Oscar’s early fur trapping base was in Miand a silhouette representing more than trofania, where my great-grandmother just a boat but a legacy shaped by the was born. This mysterious place just east captain himself — my dad. of Perrysville is one of my dad’s favorite fishing grounds — about a 6-hour boat MAPPING OUT THE PAST ride from Chignik. The village part of Photos like this celebrate the major Mitrofania is abandoned, but it is where (and infrequent) victories of the proOscar and his wife had their first two fession. Being a commercial fisherman children. One of them was my Greatis typically romanticized in movies and Grandmother Albertina. She married a reality shows, but those of us who have fisherman, Pete Anderson, and then took worked on deck know the actual realoff on her own with their four young Raymond Anderson with his Cessna, just ity. Sometimes he put so much in but weeks before his fatal midair collision. children, one of them my Grandfather 32

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

CREW LIFE Mom and dad, 1978

The author, he r siblings and their dad on the Sierra Gale in Chignik during the sum mer of 1996.

Sierra Gale

a seine Dean Anderson sews le.

Ga an Sus the web on

Raymond, on a tender boat bound for Seattle. This was during World War II, and Japanese sub sightings were common off the southeast coast of Alaska. It was a treacherous two weeks, but they made it, having survived off only potatoes and dried fish.

Raymond would later come back up to Chignik to fish and start Anderson Fisheries with my Grandma Margaret (née Lindsey, a second-generation Alaskan born in Seward). They would have four children — Gene, Neil, Dean and Rhonda — and settle in Seward during the off-season. All four kids would be involved with the salmon, cod, herring, halibut and crab fisheries in Alaska.

My grandmother, a savvy and formidable woman in her time, carried on the family business (after Raymond passed unexpectedly) and is today a respected and admired Anderson matriarch known throughout her local community and the state.

A LAND FED BY THE SEA

Chignik rests on the western Gulf of the Pacific on the Aleutian Peninsula, west of Kodiak, east of Dutch Harbor.

One can only get in by boat or small plane. Just shy of 100 residents, this place comes alive in the summer with veteran captains eager to set out their nets again, seasoned crew returning to their respec-

Fishing at dusk on the Memry Anne in 2015. Sierra Anderson photo

tive boats, greenhorns just joining.

It’s also a place where a college girl hitchhiked more than 3,000 miles from home to get a job one summer, met a fisherman, and the rest is history. My mom would often give us glimpses into her so-called “courting life” at sea in that summer of 1978: “Your dad thought it would be funny to leave me on an iceberg and just start circling around it,” she often jokes about some of my dad’s endless pranks.

The permits to fish in Chignik are passed down from generation to generation, most guys inheriting their father’s if they are lucky. Otherwise, they go for a few hundred thousand dollars — reaching all the way up to $500,000 in the late 1980s — that much money just for the privilege to fish in this region!

The highest prices out of the five species (chinook, coho, chum, sockeye, pink) in our net is our money fish, sockeye — hovering around a record $2.50/pound in ’88. That was when the Japanese were buying up our salmon left and right. Our future competitors — the farmed salmon industry — were taking notice, and in the mid-90s started infiltrating the market with farm-fed salmon. That market would start to have a detrimental effect. In 2001, when our price plummeted to $0.65/pound, the fishermen went on a strike for a couple

Susan Gale

weeks. The plummet in salmon stock in 2006 was the result of the 2001 overescapement during the strike, causing a deluge of salmon to be born the next spring. There was not enough food in the lake for the fry to survive, so many died off. Commercial salmon fishing has been a roller coaster over the years, nonetheless, both the farming and wild markets have opened up salmon to a broader consumer base. Now people are eating salmon who previously were not apt to buy it, so this seafood is not just a novelty anymore but a nutritious protein source — more sustainable and higher quality in the wild version if you did your homework. My dad’s favorite mantra? “Friends don’t let friends eat

Sisters Sierra and Memry prep fish for the smoker and brine in Chignik, Alaska.

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

33

CREW LIFE farmed salmon.”

In the early years, my sisters Sierra and Memry, our brother Shelby, our mom and I took Pen Air to get to Chignik but started taking the M/V Tustumena ferry when airfare went up. We would stumble off the ferry, a little haggard from the ride over and dad there to greet us. I could never exactly tell from his face what looked like a combination of either overwhelming dread of emotions or gratitude for us being there to “help” him out for the summer.

The guy had more holes in his $20 Kirkland Signature pants than a $70 pair of Abercrombie Destroyed classics. It looked like he had been in a shootout because the holes in the front aligned with the holes in the back — reminiscent of all the snags and tears working down in the engine room. He wore a makeshift belt to hold his Victorinox knife he created with duct tape and a Grundens’ suspender strap. He often lost weight within the first few weeks of the season opener, especially when my mom was not onboard to feed him. He focused on feeding his boat hull with salmon to sustain his mental appetite.

The first cologne I ever knew was a combination of diesel engine fuel andd salmon l masked k d

by Old Spice deodorant. One could confuse his hands with an 18th-century topograpical map. His back would often bother him, and he developed ringing in his ears from the lifelong rumblings of fishing boat machinery. My sisters and I remind him to get hearing aids, but he

Another big haul for Dean Anderson, more than 4,000 pounds of sockeye in Chignik. Sierra Anderson photo

doesn’t listen to us. Regardless of age, his enthusiasm, self-motivation and work ethic will keep him going.

Whenever we left from the Lower 48 for Alaska, I felt like an outcast from my normal friends, whom I pictured spending those months going to amusement parks, checking out aquariums, taking leisurely tropical vacations. In hindsight I had all of those, just packaged in a

foot bathroom. My dad would also travel miles to remote areas where there were no other boats because he insisted that’s where the fish were. Sometimes he was way off his mark, and other times we hit the jackpot. That’s the way it goes. Fishing is a story of unconditional love between man and boat, propelled by the heritage that brought them together.

Even on our closures, dad kept us on our toes to get ready for the My family’s boat was the amusement next opener — there was always park, an aquarium where jellyfish and maintenance to do, cleaning starfish rained down on us as we brought around the boat, sewing up net. in the net.

You name it, he thought of it. different way. My family’s boat was the He taught me to keep on casting the net amusement park, an aquarium where in life. Growing up in this atmosphere, I jellyfish and starfish rained down on us learned whether we had a good day or as we brought in the net. Inside the cab- a bad day out there, life happens in the in all six of us would fight over the last hustle — not just the catch. avocado (it’s really difficult to get fresh produce up there) or call out the per- Whitney Anderson graduated from Duke son who just used up all the water in the University in 2009 and has since served as a tanks to take a shower in our 2.5-square- cook and stewardess on private vessels.

“

”

Chignik Bay | Memry Anderson photo

34

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

Making the RULES Continued from page 25 mandate embodied in the Magnuson Act.The MSA has a proven track record of success.This monument lobbying effort is the opposite of transparent,” he declared.

Yet proponents have told fishery reps that they don’t “desire” doing fishing regulations in the conservation areas via the MSA. The proposal argues the need to prohibit potential new oil development or mining — but California fisheries are sustainably managed under a fishery management system that is heralded as the best in the world. So why include fisheries in the monument proposal at all?

The proposal is still morphing, we understand. Clearly, proponents are

attempting to divide and peel off opponents by dangling bait like removing certain areas or excluding certain fisheries. But who is making these decisions? No fishery is “safe” until the final monument plan is released by the CEQ and everyone can see it –– but by then the fisheries would be goners.

On July 14, Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) introduced a bill to “protect federal waters off the California coast,” codifying the latest compromise, which in addition to exempting all recreational fishing, would exempt the commercial albacore fishery (but is silent on the fate of the other fisheries). However, several of Farr’s peers voiced concern and opposition. One reporter pegged the politics correctly, noting that the bill has no chance of passage in the Republicanled Congress. It is a common tactic to

introduce a bill with zero chance of passage to persuade the president to use his authority under the Antiquities Act. Another wrinkle, some of the scientists who first signed the MCI letter now voice concern about the effect on commercial fishing of stocks that are very well managed. One scientist vowed to write to Boxer asking her to remove his name from the MCI letter and recognize the problem. He urged other scientists to do the same.

Our position continues to be as first stated. Use of the Antiquities Act — fishery management by fiat — contradicts the administration’s own ocean policies that promise transparency, scientific analysis and robust stakeholder involvement. Fishermen need, in fact insist on, this courtesy up front, not as an afterthought.

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute .CV2

Harris Electric Inc................................ 21

Pacific Marine Expo ............................ 13

www.alaskaseafood.org

www.harriselectricinc.com

www.pacificmarineexpo.com

Alaska United / GCI.............................. 7

Kodiak Shipyard ................................. 22

Pacific Power Group ......................... 003

www.alaskaunited.com

www.kodiakshipyard.com

www.pacificmarinepower.com

Delta Western, Inc. ............................. 21

LFS Inc Seattle .................................... 12

Simrad Fisheries ...............................CV4

www.deltawestern.com

www.lfsinc.com

www.simrad.com

Foss Maritime Company .................... 17

Marport Stout Inc .............................CV3

Vigor Industrial ................................... 23

www.foss.com

www.marport.com

www.vigorindustrial.com

Fremont Maritime Services ................ 11

MER Equipment ................................... 6

WESMAR - Western Marine

www.fremontmaritime.com

merequipment.com

Electronics .......................................... 10

Fusion Marine Technology, LLC ......... 27

National Fisherman ............................ 25

www.fusionmarinetech.com

www.nationalfisherman.com

Gannet Nets ....................................... 19

NET Systems Inc ................................. 29

www.gannetnets.com

www.net-sys.com

H & H Marine Inc ................................ 15

North Pacific Fuel ............................... 29

www.hhmarineinc.com

www.petrostar.com

www.wesmar.com

SUMMER 2016 / NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS

35

IN FOCUS / ALASKA SALMON

Deckhands ckha Kai Raymond, aym Scott Templin and John Paul Gramelis celebrate a deckload of sockeye during ring g the peak off th the 2016 Bristol Bay salmon season on the Aventura.

PHOTO BY KAI RAYMOND

36

NORTH PACIFIC FOCUS / SUMMER 2016

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