A very common fishing skiff here in Alaska

Cold waters are where the fish are, basically. Australia is surrounded by oceans, but is really a fish desert. We are a nett importer of fish.

 

Jeff, whatever you do eschew watching these Alaskan Reality shows! They are so bogus it's embarrassing. There is one done here in Homer with the Kilcher's that was one of the first. They portray them being in the 'wilderness' when, in fact, they could walk to McDonald's from where it's shot. Even closer is a Post Office with a hippie restaurant across from another restaurant!

I'm glad you've enjoyed the information and I've enjoyed sharing, thanks.

Mark

 

Comm. Fish AK w/ Nets

waikikin,
yes gill nets are so efficient that the regulatory agency(ies) use time to allow the nets in the water and therefore regulate a 'sustainable yield' of biomass.

Once the fish are netted, picked into the boats and landed on beach or tender they're weighed and a 'fish ticket' or original invoice is created and those are reported to the 'fish and feathers' regulatory agency pretty quickly - hours after all the fish are accounted.

So if there are more or less fish than the biologically planned biomass the regulators can refuse to allow nets in the water or agree to allow the nets back in the water - so theoretically key population can spawn to keep the cycle going.

The total season for this type of net fishing in some geographic areas is a few hours on a few days, others' fishing areas have whole days of net fishing time for three or four days a week; supposedly regulated by the goal of making sure enough fish always get in "their" river to spawn.

The number of variables is very high, the debate about the 'allocation of the resource' is endless and the politics is continuous, but above I've stated the intended goal and a method intended to achieve it. The debate about that either happening or failing is part of the endless argument surrounding salmon, here in Alaska.

This gear type is most like harvesting a crop that has to be taken in within narrow window of time (while the fish are swimming by your geographic location) and there are few if any before that time and none to speak of after that time. This of course makes the regulators and the fishermen at odds and the different gear types (methods of taking salmon) in conflict over "OUR fish".

The net fishing group are almost constantly "out politic'd" by the hook and line commercial fishermen. The hook and line commercial fishermen pose as 'sportsmen' users to avoid being regulated by the commercial fisheries biological agencies, and therefore take fish inside the streams in the spawning grounds. The fishing guides (hook and line commercial fishermen) argue they are recreational fishermen, but they're fishing for commerce so I find that argument a little spurious?

On the other hand.....net fisherman are so independently minded they've always failed to form a single political party to lobby to have the other commercial fishing gear types kicked out of the spawning grounds!

So the salmon harvest, at least here in Alaska, is generally an interesting ongoing argument between fishing gear types, and the various groups' interests, what yofish is showing in his second skiff that is being built in another shop; is a set net (anchored inshore nets) fishing skiff that is similar in use to the video in the links above.

There are other gear types, drifting gill nets, seine nets, and hook and line fishermen involved, all use slightly different boats to suit the gear type in the 'gold rush' pursuit of salmon.

cheers,
Kevin Morin
Kenai, AK

 

Moving along - splash box in, decks complete and other parts being pre-fabbed to install.

 

Steering console in.

Bow on view.

 

It looks like you'd get as wet as a shag, in that boat, yo, but I guess wet weather gear is mandatory, anyhow. Still looking very straight, that boat. A shag is a cormorant, by the way, a waterbird with plumage that doesn't stay dry !

 

Actually, the fact that the intersection of the bottom and the sides is so angular, makes these slabs fairly dry. They do pound hard. Without actually seeing how they are used it's hard to relate to them as 'boats' in a normal sense. They come out at the end of May and are put up by the middle of July. There is nothing handsome about these types of boats; they are merely efficient fish killing machines.

Many of the local fisherman in Bristol Bay (the largest set net fishery in AK) revert to their Lunds' because they are better water boats and are cheaper to run. In Alaska, the riveted Lund is ubiquitous.