The end of the season...

The summer tourist season is slowly coming to an end. There will be no more days of moving 15 double kayaks to the launch. These days, it's more like 4 or 5. In a few weeks, we'll be cleaning everything up.

It's also the time of year in Sitka when a smelly mist begins to rise over Indian River: the smell of rotting salmon flesh. The poor pink salmon are beginning to die off. Whenever you walk through Totem Park, you have to hold your nose. And cover your ears. The seagulls have moved in to feast on the dead fish, and all day they squawk with joy. Or greed.

The other day I took my camera to work to do a little documentation, since I have a little spare time on my hands.

Whenever a cruise ship comes to town, the local vendors come down to Crescent Harbor. They line up along the sidewalk, hoping to make a buck. There are a couple van tours, a few private boat tours, some walking tours, and the poor guys that have to hand out coupons and flyers for local shops and restaurants. Tourism has suffered a little, because of the poor economy, so things have been a little tense this summer. There has been lots of drama among the vendors: badmouthing each other, turning each other in for violations, etc. We stay out of it, but it's kind of fun to hear all the local gossip.

 There is no cruise ship dock in Sitka, so the cruise companies have to lighter people to shore on "tender" boats (the little boat below with an orange top.)

 One of our tour groups out in the sound:

 There are 3 full time guides (Dana, Stephanie, and Mitch), a shore rep/guide (Skeeter), a reserve guide (Matt, he's a school teacher and guides part time), and 2 tour managers (Me and Alison's daughter Maggie.) Maggie and I are usually the first to arrive and we get all the equipment ready. Then the guides trickle in and get ready for their tours.
Launching tours is always hectic. Everything seems to happen very fast, back to back. Once the last tour leaves, there is a little pause. We stop to catch a breath, straighten up the bus, and wait for the first tour to come back. I love this time. You feel like you've really earned a rest.
Here's Dana, sitting on the breakwall waiting for a tour to come back:

 And here they are:

 And there's a fishing boat: a purseiner. The purseiners catch the lesser quality salmon: chums and pinks. They use a large net to scoop them all out. It's really cool to watch them fish.

 Trollers are the boats that catch the high quality salmon: King, Coho, and Sockeye. Trollers catch individual fish and fillet them as soon as they are caught. There is a real art to this. They have to do it a certain way so that the flesh isn't damage and the fillet is perfect. This is the best fish you can get, and it's expensive. I think a 30 lb King brings in about $100. So if you catch 20 King in one day....
Fishing is a very lucrative job. It's very hard work and it's a hard lifestyle, but the people who do it seem to really love it. I know a lot of the fishermen here will work for the summer season and take the rest of the year off. If it's a good season, you can make $20-50,000. That's plenty to live on until next season. When the season ends, you head south: Oregon, California, Mexico, Hawaii, or New Zealand.
Some of our kayakers with the lighthouse in the background:

 Crescent Harbor:

 Dana and Skeeter clean and put away some kayaks at the end of the day. (I helped after took the picture.)

 The crew putting gear away. Dana, Stephanie, Skeeter, and Mitch:

 Alison arrives as we're cleaning up to hear about our day and talk about the plan for tomorrow.

 Mitch plays with Willow while Skeeter talks to Alison.

 Everyone's favorite pup! Willow:

Well, there's only a month left. It's been a long summer and I'm looking forward to the roadtrip home. I haven't made definite plans yet, but I'm hoping to stop in Bellingham, WA; The Teton National Forest, and St. Louis, MO to visit Bitty, one of our friends here in Sitka.
Talk to you soon!

Hunting and Gathering

Last week, the salmon started running. It's that time of year: time to return to the rivers and streams of their birth to lay eggs and start the cycle anew. You know when it's time for the salmon to run when you see them jumping out of the water. We've seen a lot of this, since we spend almost everyday out on the Sitka Sound. No, those fish are not leaping for joy because it's time to make babies. They are jumping out of the water and slapping down on their sides to break up their egg sacks. A friend recently told me a helpful visualization to understand what's going on here. Think of a bag of frozen peas. The salmon's egg sacks are like bags of frozen peas. When it's time to get cooking, you have to whack the bag against the kitchen counter a few times to break up the ice. Well that's what the salmon are doing.
Every morning (or at least every morning that I'm able to get out of the house a few minutes early) I walk through Totem Park on my way to work so that I can see if the salmon have made it up Indian River. Last week, we noticed that some Pink Salmon were hanging out near the mouth of the river. Skeeter, and many others in the neighborhood, like to go fishing there at low tide because the salmon get really thick in the shallow water. Some people like to use this opportunity to "snag" a few fish. They cast a line and then reel it in very fast to try to snag an unfortunate fish anywhere on the body. A lot of serious fisherman look down on this method. I've seen quite a few salmon swimming by with little chunks missing, a narrow escape from a snagging hook. Skeeter caught a few and cooked some up for us. It was delicious. And not only that, it was probably one of the healthiest meals I've ever had. Wild fish are much healthier than farmed fish; full of Omega-3 fatty acids.
Everyday the salmon get farther up stream. This morning, the river was thick with them. I'm told that it gets even more crowded. And stinky.

Those little gray blurs are salmon!
Also, today was my day off. My coworker Dana and I had planned to kayak out to a "secret spot" to harvest sea asparagus. It looks like tiny asparagus and it tastes salty. I've added it to stir fry and omelets, but I've never harvested it myself. We planned to wake up early and get out there during low tide (8:30 am today.) Alas, the weather was not cooperating this morning. So we went blueberry picking instead!
Here's Dana with her dog Bailey:

 It was raining on and off. We were both wearing rain pants, rain jackets and our Xtra-tuf boots. There's no trail, so we knew we'd get soaking wet walking through the wet bushes and woods. There were loads of blueberries. At one point, Bailey started barking. We backtracked to the car and waited to make sure there wasn't a bear. They have been pretty active lately. The salmonberries did not fruit like they normally do, and the salmon are a little late. They are hungry. Here's a shot of the warning sign posted at Totem Park:

 There has been some bear scat on the trail and a few days ago, someone saw a bear in the park. But this doesn't keep people from walking there dogs, jogging, or passing through. "Relax. This ain't the lower 48."
Bailey came back to us and we didn't see, hear, or smell a bear so we moved on to another spot. We spent a couple hours picking and chatting. It was great. I think that a long time ago, some of my ancient female ancestors were probably doing the same thing: foraging for food and socializing with girlfriends.
When our bags were full, we went back to Dana's. She is freezing her blueberries and when she has 9 lbs, she's going to make blueberry wine. (We went to a wine making class last week.) I decided to make blueberry crumble and save a few for oatmeal and yogurt. I road my bike back home to begin sorting through my berries:

Alison and Dana both warned me that wild blueberries usually get teeny tiny grub worms, so you have to decide: just eat them or soak your berries in water to make the worms come out. I'm not too concerned about eating them; they're full of protein right? I pulled off the ones I could see. And I figure the rest will get sterilized when I bake them in the oven. (Relax. This ain't the lower 48.)
I collected 5 cups of berries, enough to fill an old yogurt container.

 And I used the recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook to make the crumble. I cut the recipe in half:
Put about 2 cups of blueberries in a baking dish and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of sugar
Crumble:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/8 cup brown sugar (I just eyeballed this one)
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 a stick)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Put the crumble mixture on top of blueberries and pat down
Bake for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees.
Yummy

Cheers!