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With some experience on the sustainability end of the industry, I admire and envy those families who still make thier living on the water.

I have a degree in fisheries technology and worked for fisheries in Alaska and later out of Oregon.

In Alaska I worked for a private non-profit company called Prince William Sound Aquacultre. This company was formed I believe in 1972 by commercial fisherman to enhance the fishery in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The company chose locations to build hatcheries where natural barriers prevented streams from maintaining a natural run on thier own. Using native stocks of salmon, these hatcheries incubate, and rear salmon fry to certain lenth frequency criteria, then release them into the bay. The hatcheries maintain operating costs by contracting a local commercial fisherman to harvest the catch until they recover the budget. Not only do they harvest the catch, but they also pass brood for eggs over a barrier seine.

Once operation costs are recovered,and brood of the stock is sufficient, they open the bay for fishing to the entire fleet.

Unlike salmon farms, PWSAC does not have to worry about escapment as they maintain native species. The product is better as the fry are released into the wild to feed naturally.

The hatcheries themselves are all remote fly in or reach by boat, with the exception of the Gulkana hatchery. The experience of spending 3 years working at remote sites throughout Alaska is a priceless memory. However after coming back to the lower 48 to help out my disabled mother, and going to work for Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, I found earning family wage too difficult at the seasonal level. Now I work for the BNSF railroad and long for the days I spent on the water. If I could raise my family working in fisheries I would.
So I understand and applaud the fisherman still working today.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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