Observation No. 14: The Birthright

I’ve had more conversations about fishing than I can count on two hands in the few weeks. I am not a fisherperson. I have never caught a fish although I do have a vague memory of going to a fish farm when I was about five and catching something but I could have made that up.

Fishing season in Alaska is like the Super Bowl in the rest of the world. It’s something that everyone does, everyone talks about and everyone has opinions on. There’s different types of fishing here that aren’t allowed anywhere else in the country and have totally peculiar names like snagging and fish wheels. You can set net, dip net or purse and beach seine or… I don’t know what else. It’s a lot. Most people fish for halibut and salmon, although it seems you can get herring, pollock, cod, crab and clams too.

Then there’s the terrifying possibility of “combat” fishing, where fishermen and women stand shoulder to shoulder on popular rivers at certain times of June, casting their rods and hoping for a catch. Now, from what I hear this is a bit of a trick because salmon heading upstream to spawn and die aren’t necessarily very hungry. You literally have to bonk them on their nose with the bait to get them to bite—or so someone told me at a party the other night. My cousin’s wife is a life-time lesson and a bit of an expert. She recently challenged my uncle and cousin as to whether they were going to stay at the preschool or get in with the “big boys” while fishing on the Russian last week. She caught the fish that we ate for dinner (my cousin notes that he cleaned it). Her secret to success? Eye protection and lots of rubber.

In Alaska, fishing is big business and a building block for the state’s economy. So far this season, the state’s fishermen have caught 30,379,000 salmon. On average, the value of Alaskan seafood sold at first wholesale easily tops $2 billion, according to the State Division of Commercial Fisheries. The division reports that the economic impact of the seafood industry is estimated at $4.6 billion five years ago—not counting personal and subsistence fishing.

But fishing in Alaska isn’t just about business—it almost seems to be a birthright. Indeed, the New Girl has pictures of her own parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in Bristol Bay grinning in front of skiffs full of fish.

I don’t have a fishing license so I’m relegated to sitting on the sidelines for this summer. But a friend did let me practice casting his reel on a blank stretch of river, and I easily cast it out. I’ll be ready to claim my portion of Alaska’s catch next year.