Southeast Alaska is noted for its large fleet of purse seine fishing boats. The most common commercial fish caught here is pink salmon, but this morning we awoke in the midst of over 55 purse seiners fishing for chum, or dog salmon. The Alaskan salmon fishery is heavily regulated and only open for short, very specific times. Today's opening targeted fish raised in a hatchery near here and will last only two days, but many more will occur later in the season. Being able to watch the boats in operation is quite fascinating. One set a net as we were out on one of our kayak adventures. We had a superb close-hand view, as you can see by the red kayak in the foreground. The approximately 1500-foot net is pulled out away from the boat by a seine skiff into a large ring. The skiff driver hands the line that the net is attached to up to the fishermen on the boat who feed it up through the large power block, a big pulley on the extended boom. The block is put into operation, and the net is slowly pulled aboard. A lead line is at the bottom of the net to keep it well below the corks or floats. Soon rings on the lead line are pulled together, closing the "purse" and trapping the salmon in the net. The block continues to pull in the net, and the fisherman on board stack the white floats on one side, the man in a dark coat on the left, and the lead line on the other side, the man in red on the right. The net lies between them, readied for the next set. This continues until all the net is on board except for a heavy section at the end that has all the fish thrashing and jumping within it. Finally, the last of the net, called the "money bag", is brought on board and the fish pour into the hold. Frequently 2000 salmon can be brought aboard in one set that will take a well-trained crew less than an hour to set, pull aboard, empty, and reset. When the seiners hold is full of fish, they will travel to a much larger boat called a salmon tender to sell their fish. The blue hull of a tender can be seen in the far distance.
We enjoyed other activities as well. A low tide allowed many of our guests to find sea stars, sunflower stars, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, and shore crabs in an intertidal flat. The sea often produces creatures so odd that they seem almost extraterrestrial. A short walk from the beach took us through squishy muskegs to a beaver pond with a well-developed dam.
We cruised across Chatham Strait to Admiralty Island and watched humpback whales during the afternoon. There are about 450 to 500 of these magnificent creatures in Southeast Alaska where they come every summer from Hawaii to feed on schooling fish and krill. They can consume over a ton of food a day and they are not even on vacation.
