Herring

Every year at this time the herring come in to Sitka to spawn. It is the time of great excitment and fishing for the commercial fisherman. It is a highly competitive fishery that only last a day or two. Because of that, and because the schools of herring are all together in one location, the show is awesome. There are boats that run into each other trying to get to the fish, other boats that run over a net, ruining that fisherman's catch, and so many spotter planes in the sky that it sounds like an airborne invasion. The boats are so many, that you might be able to walk across the water from boat to boat. There are only about four or five openers, each lasting only about 15 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how many and how quickly the herring are caught. There is usually only one opener a day, with sometimes a couple days going by before the next one. The anticipation is in the air as the fishermen ready their boats, nets, and themselves for the intense time ahead. You always know when an opener is imminent as you see a steady line of boats headed out. I was able to get some great photos and could hardly wait to get them on the blog! And it was extra cool because Troy's mom and her husband were able to be here to enjoy the show. It was really cool for Rick to be able to experience since this was his first trip to Alaska.

Here is the fleet heading out to the opener.........

This is the boat that almost swamped us. When you are

a 20 foot sport boat in the middle of a highly competitive

fishery, YOU are the one to get out of the way!!!!.............

pulling in the set.........
looking for the schools........

a small boat making a very large wake!!.....

Papa Rick and Nelly enjoying the show......

two boats competing for the same set - the blue boat won.....

three of about 15 spotter planes - it was like an airborne attack

with them all flying so close together and all in the same direction.

The pilots will secretly call to the boat that hired them and tell

it where they see herring. Since there are so many eyes in the sky,

I am sure that there are not many boats that get the advantage!

seagulls were everywhere, looking for a free meal......

pulling up their set.....

Troy getting his citation from the Alaska State Troopers for illegal

shrimp pots. We decided to check the pots while we were watching

and couldn't find them so we were driving around looking. Well, the

Troopers who were on scene at the herring opener saw us and came

over to tell us that he had pulled the pots the day before and just hadn't

had a chance to contact us due to the opener. He told us that the pots were

illegal because the escape doors were tied up wrong and were the wrong

size. The funny thing is that we bought them from a friend who had gone to

a class at the University to learn how to make them properly!! When we

explained that he was real nice and only cited us for one pot, not all three. And

then told us that when he returned them to us he would show us what we

needed to do to correct them. So now we have a $110 ticket!!

many, many boats......

and then it was time to go home......

After an exciting week, it was time to say goodbye to

Grandma Cookie (she always brings them cookies so that

is how they know which g'ma we are talking about!) and

Papa Rick.