A Week in S.E. Alaska

By: Dylan and McKenna Peterson

By KAVU

July 27^th, 2021

It’s the same thing every time.... but always different.

After spending so many summers working, exploring, and cruising through the islands of Southeast Alaska, it’s easy to hold onto the simple routines and traditions of the fisherman's lifestyle.

Quick trips to town start with: grocery lists, laundry, and boat projects. We typically spend a full day going through our net, patching holes and mending broken lines. Oil changes are easiest done when tied to the dock and connected to shore power. And the grocery shops always keep you on your toes. You never know if you will be back in town in three days or ten days. We like our fresh veggies here on the F/V Atlantis.

Once we wrap up the projects and top off our fresh water tanks, it’s time to find the salmon.

Patience and persistence are the key to finding the right spots to set the net. The day before an opening, we will cruise the shore lines looking for ‘jumpers’. Jumping salmon are indicators for what direction the fish are moving and where they will likely be the next morning, when the area opens to fishing. Once we are confident we found a "fishy" spot, we drop the anchor and settle in for the night.

The sound of McKenna’s alarm clock wakes the crew at 3:30am. We hop up, throw on our boots, start the coffee and get going for the day. The opening starts at 5am. We set up the back deck, eat our first breakfast, and watch for jumpers as the sun rises.

When we set the net, we circle the school of fish, bring the net back and scoop the fish aboard. Throughout the day, we will do this anywhere from 12-18 times. Once we catch all the fish we can, we then offload everything to a tender.

The tender will then take our fish to the processor/cannery for us.

After a handful of long days on the water and endless hours of work, we’re more than ready for clean laundry, fresh produce, and maybe a couple of naps. But, we’re on a boat, so there will always be projects that need our attention first.’