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The
fishing season has switched from salmon to crab for local
fishers. There was one day of sockeye salmon fishing in
August, and then a couple days of fishing for pink (humpy)
salmon, at 15 cents a pound, in September, and then the
buyers quit buying. They didn’t need any more fish,
there are already too many cans of pink salmon in the warehouses
from earlier years.
There are so many pinks out there, that they literally sank
one seiner.
The New Moon, owned by the Sea K Fish Co., had about 40,000
pounds of pinks aboard, and a net full of pinks to bring
aboard, when the boat noticeably started listing, with the
stern roller going under water. The crew cut the net loose,
and tried to pull the boat back with the seine skiff, but
it didn’t help. They had to jump into the skiff. The
last one, the captain, had to jump down about six feet into
the skiff, as the boat was rolling over and sank stern first.
It took about two minutes for it to go down. The old wooden
boat had more fish aboard than it had seen in a long time,
and the seams of the boat which were normally above water
line were down where they weren’t soaked up, and water
poured in. She is now on the bottom off of Point Whitehorn.
All the crew were shaken up but are okay.
The treaty Indian fishers also had several days of crab
fishing between the end of August and the middle of September.
There were a lot of Dungeness crab caught at that time,
as much as a million and a half pounds. Two Indian crab
boats also sank, one a skiff with pots aboard which sank
going out of the harbor, between the dock at the end of
Marine Drive and Semiahmoo. The men aboard had to swim before
being picked up by another fisher, and were taken to the
hospital for treatment of hypothermia.
The second crab boat sank the next day, coming into the
harbor. It went down off Semiahmoo Spit, out from sewer
treatment plant. The men aboard also make it to shore okay.
It seems that these boats were all overloaded, as the weather
was calm.
Non-Indian fishers will start crab fishing October 1. The
crab pots will start arriving at the harbor soon, to be
loaded onto boats in preparation for the opening day. Treaty
Indian fishers are slated to start crab fishing again October
3. Crab buyers are expected to be at Sea K, Boundary, Star
Fish, Blaine Crab (Blaine Marina dock), and Dakota Fisheries.
Local draggers have been fishing for sole and some cod,
bringing their catch into Sea K Fish. Offshore draggers
have been going out in the ocean for bottom fish and turbot.
Some of these draggers will be unloading their bottom fish
catch in Neah Bay. Several large draggers have been bringing
in hundreds of thousands of pounds of turbot to Sea K, where
these soft, low priced fish are then taken to Dakota Fisheries
building to have the fins cut off with bandsaws, and the
rest of the fish returned for processing at Sea K. The fins
are boxed, frozen and shipped to the Orient.
As the Dakota Fisheries company has not been using their
building for processing fish, this arrangement gives Sea
K a larger space for the saws and crew to work. The fillet
lines are all in the Sea K building for processing for fresh
fish markets.
The local draggers that are still working in Alaska will
be fishing for cod and pollock in October. The season will
close November 1.
Many old time local boats have changed hands this year.
Some are still in our harbor, others come during certain
seasons for fishing, and others will never be seen again,
as they have been destroyed. The salmon license buy-back
has removed many local fishers form the salmon fishing,
and they sold their boats to either Indian fishers, who
will be getting more and more of the total allowable catch,
or to fishers in other areas for different fisheries. It
has been sad to see many of these boats leave our area,
and more will be changing hands as the fishery changes.
Our harbor has been updated, with modern facilities for
moorage and for general usage. Now we shall see who will
still be here to use these facilities.
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