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Things
are pretty quiet for the commercial fishing fleet out of
Blaine Harbor. There is an opening for crab fishing in Skagit
Bay which is not scheduled yet but is supposed to happen
soon, and the small draggers are fishing for sole on a day
basis, bringing their catch in to Sea K Fish.
The
bigger draggers that fish off the coast have been ducking
weather, as usual, but are getting some of their quota of
bottom fish caught. There is an A season and a B season
for these offshore fishers. The A season quotas go from
the first to the end of each month, and the B season goes
from the 15th of one month through the 14th of the next
month.
There
is some confusion about the B season, which is not generally
known, even by the Coast Guard and Fisheries personnel.
Our local fishers who are on the B season have had to do
some educating when they were boarded at sea or unloading,
to make it known that they are in a legal catch quota season.
The
quotas are quite restrictive, and anyone catching more than
their quota for a certain species of fish can be heavily
fined. Even a few pounds over can be a problem, so fishers
learn quickly to estimate their catch poundage, and stop
fishing in areas where a certain type of fish are being
caught, when they believe the quota has been reached. They
can then go on to another area for another type of fish,
or go in to unload their catch before going after another
species.
The
Washington state bottom fishers are also restricted to the
type of net they use. If they are using a bottom trawl,
they may not have another type of net aboard. If it is a
midwater trawl, there can be no bottom trawl aboard.
This is one reason that it is important to have a buyer
within short range of the fishing grounds, so that nets
can be changed easily and the boat can go out again after
unloading their catch without having to travel for 12 hours
or so, which would be the case if they were to bring their
catch to Blaine from the open waters of the ocean. The buyers
in Neah Bay are important to the fishing fleet for this
reason, as they are right at the mouth of the Strait of
Juan de Fuca, easily accessible for the ocean fishing fleet.
The
bottom fish fleet in Alaska fishing out of Kodiak or Dutch
Harbor is pretty much shut down now, and will probably reopen
in late June or early July. Some of that fleet has come
back to Blaine, and will be fishing off the Washington coast
for the summer. The Miss Leona is one Bering Sea boat which
fishes here summers. Other Blaine boats, such as the Rosella
and the Caravelle, are tied up at Kodiak until the fishery
opens again.
The
Blaine park board is happy to see that the “Mutt Mitt”
dog refuse bags are being used by many Marine Park visitors.
The park is visibly cleaner with the use of these plastic
bags. There is a city-wide ordinance to not only clean up
after your dog, but also to keep the dog “under control,”
which means that the owner keeps the dog in the owner’s
immediate physical presence, preventing the dog from trespassing
upon property or annoying or chasing other persons, animals
or vehicles of any sort.
This
means either leash control or voice control if the dog is
trained to respond to such. We have been told that probably
99 percent of the dogs in the park are well behaved, and
only a very few dogs are a problem. I have seen many families
with dogs enjoying their outings at Marine Park.
The
Plover will be starting up its summer runs on Friday, May
25, and will be running Friday and Saturdays, noon to 8
p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until after Labor
Day weekend.
This
is a very popular tourist attraction, and also one that
locals enjoy, a fun way to entertain your guests or just
an outing on the water which doesn’t take much time.
It gives you another option when you want to get over to
Semiahmoo or conversely to Blaine. Some take their bikes
across on the ferry, giving them more access to the “other
side” attractions.
I was
fortunate to get a ride on the Plover recently on a trip
to White Rock. The trip worked out very well, the captain
called in to the customs with the names, etc. of those aboard,
and customs cleared us with no trouble. We walked from the
end of the White Rock pier to shops alongside the beach,
and really enjoyed ice cream cones from a new shop, the
“Dolce Gelato,” owned and run by a young couple
from Italy, which features many flavors (more than 20) of
homemade ice cream and sherbets. It also has a lunch menu
of sandwiches and soup. We all highly recommend their ice
cream.
After
getting our treats, we walked back to the Plover (have you
seen the White Rock pier? It’s very nice, and quite
long) and sailed back to Blaine. It took about 15 minutes
for a one-way trip.
Richard
Sturgill, who was one of the captains aboard the Plover,
arranged the trip as a perk for those who will volunteer
to staff the museum at Semiahmoo this summer.
The
museum at Semiahmoo is going to open the weekend of May
25, staffed by volunteers for Friday, Saturday and Sundays,
noon to 4 p.m. during the summer months. This museum has
a good collection of artifacts from the Alaska Packers Salmon
cannery, and information on local salmon fishing from the
early years of Blaine fishing.
The
museum is important to our community and is not funded by
Whatcom County Parks, as they don’t have enough funds
to keep all our parks open. Without volunteer helpers, we
could lose this museum. Volunteers are needed for staffing
some of the weekend shifts. If you are interested contact
Richard Sturgill of the Semiahmoo Maritime History Museum
at 332-5742.
One
of the ways they will get money for upkeep of the museum,
is by selling two videos, “The Days of Salmon Trips
and Fish Pirates” and “Sockeye and the Age of
Sail,” both about the early days of A.P.A. and early
salmon fishing. They sell for $21.58 each, and are available
at the museum.
Volunteers
so far have cleaned up the museum, which was closed for
several years, and a roster of volunteers is in place for
staffing most weekends this summer. Rite Aid drug store
in Blaine donated six large pots of flowers to beautify
the planter outside the museum doorway, which needed some
colorful blooms that would be relatively low maintenance.
We
thank them for this donation, and also thank all who have
volunteered their time and expertise to making our museum
a success. I hope that you will find time to get to the
museum this summer, and also will enjoy a ride on the Plover.
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