Real Jobs news-O-matic feature; Not all fishermen are men!

Hey guess what?  I was featured today in News-O-Matic news app for kids!  NOM is a daily interactive news source for younger readers, bringing  current events and world news to their level in a fun and interactive way to encourage staying informed and reading.   Each week NOM features "real jobs", unique jobs from around the country.  This week, I was featured!  How cool is that?  Check it out!
 

Today's News-O-Matic, Oct 16, 2104

 “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.” Dr. Seuss may have been thinking of 42-year-old Jen Pickett when he wrote this! Pickett works as a commercial fisherwoman in Cordova, Alaska. That means she catches the fish that end up in grocery stores! News-O-Matic (NOM) talked to Pickett (JP) about her job.

Like I was saying, each week NOM features someone with a "real job" that entails a description about what they do for a living.  This week they featured me as a fisherman! I mean, I'm not sure fishing is really a "real job" but whatever, that is beside the point.  Still,   how cool is that that 8-10 year-olds all over America today are learning about commercial fishing in Alaska?  And, not only that, but that women fish in Alaska, too!  I think that is my favorite part. 

NOM: Can girls be as good at fishing as guys? JP: Yes! I think women make great fishermen. There is a saying that you have to work smarter, not harder. And that is true for women. We don’t always have the physical strength to do some of the tasks needed to be done. So we have to figure out a way to still do them by using our brains and not our muscles.

To see the full article you have to download the free app onto your iPad or antroid (sorry, a laptop or computer won't work) which you can do here (http://press4kids.com/). But I know you are all busy or might not own a tablet so I'll try to share with you the main points.  Except my blog doesn't have the same cool feature as their app "read to me" and the whole interview is read out load like a bed time story.

NOM: Do you need special training to fish? 
JP: No. I just learned it by working on other boats for a lot of years.

NOM: When do you go fishing in Alaska? 
JP: Salmon season in Cordova, where I mainly fish, is from May until September.

NOM: Do you ever get grossed out working with fish?  
JP: Not so much anymore. Since Alaskan waters are so cold, we have to wear rubber gloves and raingear to stay dry. So if I get fish blood or slime on myself, it’s just on my raingear. And I just wash it off. 

My second favorite part of the feature is when they talk about thinking about where dinner comes from.  They really helps connect the dots for people that fishermen provide a delicious, nutritious, sustainable food source! 

 

NOM tries to make each article as interactive as possible.  There are a few buttons to push that lead to different facts, "acts", a short video of me setting my net, a map and photos.  Here are a few more photos in the feature, and school kids all over America today will see Cordova Alaksa on a map!

My on my old boat circa 2000

gillnetting the Copper River Flats, Cordova Alaska

slacking while seining on the Coral out of Petersburg, AK circa 1995

interactive map that tells you how far you are from Cordova, Alaska!

All in all a pretty cool interview and hopefully a good boost for Alaska's fisheries!  I think NOM did a whiz bang job of summing up fishing, but I need to make one teeny, tiny correction.  That lovely blue bowpicker that they claim is me on my boat is not my boat. I wish!! Despite sending them a picture of me and my boat, they posted a picture I took of another boat.  I guess I can't blame them, Jame's boat is much nicer than mine ever was. But I just didn't want anyone thinking I was misleading NOM by claiming to own a nicer boat than I did.  Ok, I think you are pickin' up what I am puttin' down.  I'm out.

Family Fishermen of Wild and Sustainable Copper River/Prince William Sound Salmon

Howdy ho all.  I bet you thought I fell overboard long ago and have since been eaten up by sand fleas and small crabs.  Not the case.  I am alive and well and in Finland.  But, that is a story for another time.

This fishing season was a great one, with so many adventures.  I have loads to tell you!  But where do I start?  I will start with this.  Here is a great little video put on by the Copper River/ Prince William Sound Marketing Association (http://www.copperrivermarketing.org/home) titled "Family Fishermen of Wild and Sustainable Copper River/Prince William Sound Salmon".   Personally, I think they did a whiz bang job on this video showcasing Copper River Salmon and fishing in Cordova, Alaska.  But, my opinion has just a little list...I'm in the video!  Ha!  This spring a film crew came to Cordova and shot a bunch of footage.  I didn't really think much of it because I've been filmed by these kinds of crews before, but I'm usually among the footage that gets edited out.  Haha.  So when this video came out a few months later, I didn't think anything of it.  Plus, I was in the Arctic literally about 1000 miles away from Cordova and the Copper River and they were the last thing on my mind. But again, that is another story for another time.   So, the first time I saw this video I didn't know I would be in it, I thought it was just another video.  And, like the geek I am, when I saw myself I was so shocked I yelled "Hey, that's me!" Duh!   Its a little weird to see yourself on the screen, even if it is a laptop screen. At least it is for me.  Maybe someone like Linda Greenlaw would be used to it, but as we all know, I'm not Linda Greenlaw.  And I could only watch this video once because it really is just too weird watching myself.  Do I really sound like that?  And if so, you guys read my blog anyway?  How sweet you all are!  OK, before I get totally freaked out and decide not to even post this at all I'm going to just hit  the publish button and walk away.

Tailor made forecast for the Copper River Flats first opener

Seems like mother nature has it in for us here on the Copper River.  The first commercial fishing opener of the season and is 12 hours long, from 7 AM to 7 PM tomorrow, May 16, 2013.   Seems like that is the exact time the weather is supposed to turn to be UGLY.  The 4PM NOAA Marine weather update for the Copper River area, which is Cape Suckling to Gore Point,is as follows:  Gale Warning. SE wind 30 kt increasing to 40 kt by midday. Seas 14 ft.  Well, that's one way to kick off the season.  Let's hope there is some fish out there to make it all worth it!

Oh well, guys are all a buzz getting ready anyhow.  There was a line up at the fuel dock, the boat launch, the cannery where guys ice up, the grocery store, the gear store.  Shoots, there was even a line up at the phone company hooking up last minute local cell phones. But even with all the scurry,  some are still scrambling to get their nets on, their boats in the water, fueled up, iced up and psyched up!  I went down to the harbor a little while ago and it was still full! You'd never even know there's going to be an opener tomorrow.  But they are starting to dribble out.  High water is a 6PM today, a good time to leave.  I don't blame them either with that forecast. I wouldn't want to be out there any longer than I had to either.  A few fishermen said they will probably get up early and take a look and if its too bad out, go back to bed.  They all say this but they always end up going.

fueling up at the fuel dock

Cordova Harbor

loading up the net

running out to the fishing grounds

Good luck out there and stay safe!

It's the journey not the destination...right?

Sounds sage enough.  I’d buy it.  Though, that wasn’t my tune a few days ago …

Another wise old saying is that the journey starts the moment you leave your door.  I think that’s horseshit. Well, at least, that isn’t quite the case when you live in remote places of Alaska, like, say, Cordova and your one and only mode of transportation out of said remote places of Alaska, like, say, Cordova, is the ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway, and said ferry keeps getting cancelled!

I think if you are stuck in the town you live in, like yours truly, your journey most certainly does not start the moment you leave your door.  That’s when purgatory starts. 

I was all scheduled to take off on the ferry Sunday morning.  But Mother Nature had other ideas.  That bitch.  The weather picked up to southeast 40 with gusts to 60 and the ferry was cancelled for both Saturday and Sunday’s sailing.  Ok, ha ha, all part of the fun of living in Cordova.  Right?

I’m a trooper.  I got up super sonic early Monday morning and was at the ferry terminal at 5:55 AM all excited to try again to get out. I showered, put on clean clothes,  had my coffee already made, a thermos full for the road, pasta salad I made the night before so I wouldn’t have to stop for lunch and other little snacks for myself.  Carefully packed the few remaining items into my car, arranging them just so.  Said good-bye, again, to my buddies and I was ready to travel.  My high hopes came crashing down like a tsunami when I found out I wasn’t even on the stand-by list.  I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of making it out. The car had been packed for days and I was already out of bed.  What the hey? I had to try!  I couldn’t get a confirmed reservation for another 8 days!

I waited and waited and waited.  For an hour and a half.  Finally, I was told to stage in Lane 2.  This is a good sign.  The ferryman pointed at various cars and told them to load.  I’m so close!  First this one, then that one, then another 20 minutes or so later ferryman said “Sorry.  All full”.  Meh.

I was sure I was going to get out, if nothing else, by sheer will alone!  Deflated, I slogged back to the terminal to rebook my ticket and was told that there were a lot of people ahead of me who had been trying to get out for the past 10 days!  But, that I now had a new confirmed reservation for Thursday, 3 days away. At least I know now when I’ll be leaving.  And, looky, that’s the one and only window of decent weather.  How lucky for me.

In the mean time, Cordova and Prince William Sound continued to get pounded by storm after storm.  The ferry was cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday.  As my dad would say “The wind blew, shit flew, and no one could see for an hour or two.”  The wind did blow, I think we had gusts to 50 or 60. We got 20 inches of rain in three days; there were flood warning and high wind warning everywhere.  Luckily, most of Cordova is on a hill so not much flooding.

I woke up at 5 AM Thursday morning with little hope.  The tree branches outside bumped and thumped against my window all night, letting me know that the forecasted weather window did not arrive after all.  Demoralized, I got up anyway, didn’t shower, didn’t pack a lunch but just dragged myself down to the ferry terminal only to confirm what I already knew.  Cancelled.

This was starting to get old.  I mean, how much stand by to stand by can one woman stand?  My friends from down south tried to console me “be patient”.  It took all my will power not to tell stick it were the sun don’t shine.  It was my Cordova buddies that gave me the best advice a gal can get at 8:30 in the morning.  Start drinking.  Ha! Now that’s advice I can sink my teeth into!

I spent the day rethinking my travel plans, reviewing my other travel options (turns out, I didn’t have any), and pretty much beating my head against the wall.

However, managed to get to bed early and again, woke up this morning (Friday) at 5 AM.  Heard the same damn branches outside my window letting me know the wind is still blowing.  Debated a shower.  Threw on the same clothes as yesterday, made coffee but no snacks.  Tucked my remaining bags back in the car any old way,  didn’t say good-bye to anyone and slogged, again, back to the ferry terminal. There were cars lined up to get on, a good sign.  I parked and trotted through the rain to check in.   This time, I’m on the stand by list, that’s another good sign.  Ooh, number 3 on the stand by list…this sounds promising.  And the weather is starting to come down….

I get staged in lane 1 this time.  Someone checks my ticket.   Then finally, I hear the words I have been longing to hear all freaking week!  “Pull forward to the purser.  She’ll take your ticket then drive aboard.”  THANK YOU!

Me and my ass are finally getting out of Cordova after a long, emotionally arduous and torturous week of ups and down and going/not going and stand by to stand by is finally over.  I can at last start my 3500-mile road trip south!! My prayers are answered!

Wait, what?  What did you just say?  The Richardson Highway,  one and only road out of Valdez is closed due to flooding?  Shut the front door. 

Oops

In fishing, its not a matter of if it will happen to you, its a matter of when it will happen.  We all make the mistakes at some point in time or another and most of us all make the same mistakes.  I've made a few of these myself, but, its always funnier when it is someone else this time and not you (or me!)

getting ready for Xmas early by decorating the Whistler

Wonder if the Egg Island can needs a permit

The dogleg in the stick channel.  Yeah, I know this sandbar

Hey, its me.  Is it green right return or red right return?

You're asking me?

We got what you need!  Gas, ice, cigarettes, chew, ice cream.  Just give us a few and we'll be right there

You're in my set.

All fisherman are liars

East coast fisherman Linda Greenlaw had it right when she stated, “All fisherman are liars.“  I tell you, fishermen are physically incapable of telling the truth, the whole truth and nothin’ but the truth, so help us cod. It’s in our DNA. Fisherman does two things.   We lie about the amount of fish we catch, the amount of fish we don’t catch.  We lie about where we caught them and when and how we caught them. We lie about how big it was…or wasn’t. We catch fish and we lie. 

So when asked if this blog is true, true to form, I answered, “as true as any fisherman can tell a tale.”  I stick to that.  Having said that, some names that I use in my blogs have been changed in order to protect the innocent, or the guilty, whichever the case may be.   Being that I’m talking about fisherman, the latter is probably more often the case.  Having said that, I want to revisit my disclaimer, which I wrote when I started this blog a few years ago, which is, as follows.  Here goes: NOT ALL THIS IS TRUE!  In fact, none of it may be true at all.  Or, a little may be true or true-ish. Or, it may have actually happened, but years ago.  You decide.  So, when I poke fun at the skipper or tell a story about a trip, or whatever, I may not be talking about the current trip, or even the current season.  You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down?  This blog is for entertainment purposes only and the scuttlebutt is all in good fun.  OK, just needed to clarify since I live in a small town and rumors fly and someone just gave me a pillow that said, “Be nice to me or you’ll end up in my novel”. 

Having said that, I do really fish.  Honest.

In fact, fishing has been pretty good this year on the Copper River so far.  Near record runs have the counter going like crazy.   The count to date is 306,816 fish up the river verses and anticipated 129,500. The next opener is for 48 hours on Thursday, May 31.

The last opener, which was Monday, though a bit slower than the rest, was still pretty good, even if the weather did turn to shit.  East 35.  Rain. .  “A hair parter” according to my buddy Philbert.  The forecast isn’t any nicer for this next one, either.  E 45 seas 13 feet. I ran into my other buddy Lyle and said, “Yeah, did you hear the forecast?  45.”  “45 degrees?”  Asked Lyle.   Valid question being that is been hovering around the mid- 40s for the past few days. “Both.”  I said,  “It is 45 out right now but its supposed to blow 45”.  That’s not going to be much fun.  Its never a good time when the temperature is the same as the wind speed.  A good diet plan though.  It will be too sloppy to cook, might be too sloppy to eat and what you do eat might re-visit ya anyhow.  That South Beach diets got nothing on the Copper River Flats diet.  Between that and the cold weather, the pounds should fall right off.  I know I’ve been freezing my butt off lately, though more figuratively than literally.  45 degrees is colder than I experienced all winter!  I’m not acclimatized being that I spent my winter sailing in Florida.  As a matter of fact it’s colder in this house than it was all winter in Florida.   My emergency Patagonia order arrived just in time.  I had to order a warm vest, ski socks and fleece hoody, then I trotted down to Copper River Fleece (http://www.copperriverfleece.com/hoodiefemale.html) and picked up another spare fleece hoody just in case to go with my long johns, hat, multiple jackets and liners for my gloves.  I think I’ll get some of those hand warmers, too.   Yes, it is that cold out there.  Between the wind and the rain and the cold fish and the cold ocean. Brrr.  I know it’s been hot around the country and has been in the 90s in Ohio so it probably hard to imagine that we still have snow and did I mention cold? There’s nothing too much worse than picking cold fish with ice-cold hands.  Kind of makes the process a bit more unpleasant.  Honestly.

What do fish prices and anvils have in common?

With three openers under our belts the fishing season here is starting off with a bang.  The first opener, which was 12 hours, the fleet caught 155,000 sockeye salmon verses an anticipated
32, 000 according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) www.adfg.alaska.gov and the price was pretty high at $4.00 a pound!  Not as many kings as anticipated were caught, 1,100 verses an anticipated of 2,100, but at $6.50 a pound, we’ll take it!  The sonar is clicking away steady, counting fish up stream that are returning home.   The cumulative count, as of May 23^rd is more-less on track at 17,184 with an anticipated count of 18,418 fish. 

Tender and gillnetters out on the fishing grounds

Monday’s opener turned out to be a good one, too, except for the fact that the price dropped like an anvil in a Road Runner Cartoon.  But the weather was nice and there were a few fish around.  The fleet caught 219,000 reds.  That is huge!  The anticipated catch was 94,000 reds.  1,300 kings were caught verses an anticipated of 3,455. The price is still shaking out and there are a few discrepancies between canneries, like one offering $3.10 a pound for sockeye and the other offering $1.75.  That’s a big price difference.  We’re still waiting to see if the low ballers are going to come up on price or how on that. 

Tender out on the fishing grounds

I just got in from another 12-hour opener, our third of the season.  It started out pretty sloppy out there, not much wind but tide running against the current, seemingly both against the wind.  Just made it lumpy.  My guts took a beating when we ran.  Nothing too bad, but you certainly couldn’t make Eggs Benedict.   That’s how I gauge how bad the weather is out there.  Is it a peanut butter and jelly day or can I make an actual sandwich?  Can I fry an egg or will it end up paper thin and the complete diameter of the pan?  Crepes are probably a good thing to cook out there on a snotty day, the thinner the better, right?  I was working on a tender one summer and tried to bake a cake.  For some reason or another, we had a port list.  And the cake, you guessed it.  Lemon list cake.  One side was about a half in high and the other was 3.  Anyway, I digress. Like I said, I'm writing this after the fishing opener.  I'm still rocking.

The price dropped again for reds (sockeye) to $1.30 a pound! I think that's lower than it went last year and this is only the 3rd period!  Wouch!  That is what I heard anyhow maybe it will come up.  But I’m curious.  What are you guys paying a pound at the store?  And where?  Do tell!

Rain-gear blowout.  I thought I felt a draft....

SNIFF, SNIFF

SNIFF, SNIFF.

Hear that?

SNIFF, SNIFF, SNIFF!

Can you hear that?

That’s the sound the kinky boys make when they sniff their way back to Alaska.  They have swum the distance, went wherever it is king salmon go, did whatever it is that king salmon do and are now, right now, swimming their way back home.  Can you hear them now? Isn’t that exciting? The King Salmon are returning!

50 lb Copper River King, 2011

This is such an exciting time of year.  The fish buzz is just beginning.  The season is approaching and I think I have just enough money to make it through.  Barely. The process of selective memory is complete and I have forgotten all the reasons that I hate to fish and all the aches and pains it causes and only remember what I love about it.  Being on the water with the chance that this next set might make me rich!  And the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and nice calm days (hey, this is my fishing fantasy, and in my fantasy, the weather is always nice on the Copper River.)

17 lb Copper River King circa 2001 caught on my boat

 f/v King-N-I

I have even forgotten the promise that I made my friend make, that if I even talked about wanting to go fishing again, to run, not walk, to the kitchen.  Get out her biggest cast iron pan and bang me over the head with it until I have come to my senses.  I wonder if she forgot this promise, too...Oh well, she’s not here.  

40-ish lb Copper River King circa 2001 on King-N-I

Halibut season opened last week, March 17^th, Sitka Herring is gearing up.  Next thing you know, it will be May 15^th, which is opening day (give or take) of the Copper River in Cordova, Alaska!  In the past there have been helicopters on the fishing grounds waiting for the first king salmon.  They shuttle the fish to town where it hops on a plane bound for Seattle.  Where chefs are waiting for it, waiting to cook it up right for folks who get to have it for dinner, an exquisite dinner of King Salmon that was caught that very same day!  But, shh!  Nobody tell the salmon about the fate it awaits when it returns home.  Let that be our little secret. 

Trailer Turned Submarine: Part I

The Cordova NAPA has a BBQ every year on Memorial Day weekend. There is a savings on things that fishermen need to have, like oil and fuel filters, oil, and tools.  I like to stock up for the season.     The whole town shows up but not so much for the sale as for the free hotdogs.  In a town where hotdogs are $9 bucks at the local lunch hit, free hotdogs are a treat.

It was my third or fourth season fishing my own boat and I was working on being more independent.  I guess fishing one of the most dangerous waters in Alaska alone at the age of 31 or 32 just wasn’t enough for me.  I wanted to be more independent.  Anyway the tide was falling and I, true to form, was running late.  I needed to pull my boat to fix something on the lower unit.  I didn’t own a truck and relied on Lenny to pull me out with his two-tone tan 1983 Ford F-350.  Feeling like a bother since high tide was so early in the morning, around 6 AM, I waited until the last possible moment to pull out.  And, wanting to be more independent, I hooked up the trailer myself, even though I had never done it before.  Plus, I was in a hurry.  This is always a recipe for disaster.  This morning was no different.

Lenny backed the truck up to my trailer and I latched locking mechanism above the ball hitch and my safety chain to the truck.  Lenny drove the truck and trailer to the ramp where my boat was already waiting as I ran down and jumped aboard.  At 7 AM on a Saturday morning, the harbor was still pretty quiet, no one around except for Gloria mending gear on the airplane float just behind the boat ramp. 

The tide was over half out and I was pushing the envelope by pulling my boat out, as I needed at least a 2.5 hold up tide to have enough water.  I climbed aboard, fired her up and untied.  I backed up a bit to line my bow up with the trailer while Lenny backed down the ramp until the back tires just touched the salt water but not enough to cover the rims. He locked the front hubs and put it in four-wheel drive in order to have more power to pull my 28 foot, 15,000 pound bowpicker.

I got the bow lined up and slid right in.  I gave her a little more power and scooted her up.  While leaving her in forward I grabbed a safety line from my front cleat, went around the tow post of the trailer and back to my other cleat, making a bridle.  This way, she can’t slide off the trail on the way up the ramp as some boats have done in the past.

I ran inside the cabin, cut the engine and raised the lower unit.  Since we were in a hurry, I just stayed aboard instead of jumping into the truck.

I went back to the bow and gave Lenny the signal that I was all ready to go.  He put the truck in low and started up the ramp.  I looked over the side of my rail as we went up and everything looked fine, the boat was straight and even on the trailer.  We got about half way up and I heard a bang and knew that wasn’t too good a sign.  It was followed by a loud clank, clank, clank, clank, clank.  I looked up to see that the locking mechanism of the trailer above the ball had come up and the trailer disconnected itself from the truck.  That was the first noise.  The clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, was the safety chain liberating itself from the tongue of the trailer but stayed attached to the truck.  The truck and the trailer were no longer joined.  In that split moment of sheer panic my eyes got wide as saucers.  “Holy shit!  What do I do?” I cried.  Lenny, who is always cool as a cucumber, casually and calmly said.  “Hold on.”  I grabbed the wheel.  She was only idle for a split moment then I was surprised how much speed my boat and trailer gained in that short distance of down the boat ramp.  It couldn’t have been more than 50 or 60 feet.  She was really flying fast, backwards, heading for the water completely out of control and there wasn’t a thing to be done about it, except to hold on.   The boat didn’t go straight back, I went back at a bit on a angle, my stern, with my $15,000 lower unit raised up, was heading straight for the dock.  The only thought I had time for was “This is going to cost me a lot of money”.  Then I hit the water and the force almost knocked me off my feet.  Luckily, I took Lenny’s advice and held on.  

The boat didn’t torpedo too much, since it was still attached to the trailer, which acted as a big sea anchor. It also acted as a big bumper and smacked the dock instead of my lower unit.  The whole episode only lasted about 15 seconds but to me, it seemed like an eternity.  Still a bit dazed I looked up to see who just witnessed my folly.  Gloria, barely glancing up from her work nonchalantly commented “At least the truck didn’t go in with it.  I’ve seen that happen before.”  Gloria, who used to spend all day everyday down on the docks for years has seen it all and clearly wasn’t impressed.   I, on the other hand, had to push my heart out of my throat and back where it belonged before I could even speak. 

It only took a second for the surprise to wear off then I assessed my situation.  I was standing on my boat, which was tied to a trailer, which was completely submerged in the harbor.  I wasn’t close enough to the dock to hop off, nor was the truck anywhere near being able to retrieve the trailer.  No matter, I had the perfect solution.  I would just drive the boat and trailer back to the dock and try again.  I lowed my lower unit, fired up the engine and put it in forward from my forward helm and the boat moved.  I figured I was genius for coming up with this plan so can imagine my surprise when I realized it wasn’t going to work.   I got the boat to move forward about five feet or so, but then it wouldn’t go any more.   So close, but so far.  I was still about three feet away from the dock and the trailer wasn’t anywhere near where we could grab it with the truck.

Huh.  Now what?

Lenny suggested that I untie the boat and go get Howard.   But, I didn’t want to.  I wanted this to work.  And where there is a will, there is a way, right?

I tried again.

Still didn’t work.

I tried again.

Again, it didn’t work.

Eventually, it slowly sunk in to my somewhat stubborn head that the plan would only work in theory, not in reality. 

I was afraid to just leave my trailer turned submarine  turned navigational hazard unattended and unmarked at the bottom of the boat ramp  “What if someone hits it?”  I questioned Lenny.  “No one else is going to try to pull their boat this stage of the tide. Just take your boat back to your slip.  Come on, I’ll give you a lift.  Lets go find Howard.” 

I ran my boat back to my slip recalculating todays plan in my head.  My plan was to pull my boat, get it to Cordova Outboard before they close for the weekend closes for the weekend and launch it that next morning.  Then I’d have Sunday to finished mending my torn net, get fuel and ice and head out to the fishing grounds that evening for Monday’s opener. 

You’d think after a few years of these set backs I’d get used to them. But no, they pissed me off every time.

I met Lenny at the top of the ramp and got in.  We drove down to the Cordova House, locally known as the CoHo, to look for Howard.

Turn in next week for rest of the story…..

I’m out. 

Cordova's "Snowpocalypse" 2012

 

Cordova Alaska, where I fish, is used to managing a lot of snow.  But this winter, they’ve received

around twenty feet in twenty-four days, give or take.  A bit more than the normal amount. 

Browning street in downtown Cordova

School was cancelled, the airport was snowed in, businesses shut down, residents were snowed in, the road was closed, roofs collapsed and avalanches were triggered.   This town is used to being self-sufficient and true to form, Cordovans pulled together to help each other out best they could.  A task force was created to manage and prioritize each crisis, such as digging down eight feet of snow to the top of someone’s heating fuel tank or digging someone out of their home.  But after a few days, even they had to call for help.  The mayor declared an emergency and the National Guard was called in.  They had to arrive by ferry since the airport was still buried in snow.  Granted, they arrived without shovels, a slight oversight, but that was quickly remedied and they helped dig the town out.  Shovels were a hot commodity, you see, the whole town was sold out.  More were ordered but with the airport shut down, there was no way to get them shipped in.  Meanwhile, it kept snowing.

Copper River Seafoods
(photo by L. O'Toole)

 

Copper River's net loft
(L.O'Toole)

  

Roofs caved in under the weight. One of those roofs was the Copper River Seafood's warehouse. Inside that warehouse were fisherman’s boats, nets and gear. The irony is that these fisherman took the extra step of putting their boats to bed for the winter inside a cozy dry warehouse, opposed to either leaving them in the water or storing them outside on a trailer.   And then the roof caved in.  At first, it was just the second floor that was damaged, but as it kept snowing, that floor eventually caved in on top of boats. From what I understand, what the snow didn’t destroy in that warehouse the heavy equipment used to clean up the snow did.

heavy equipment clearing the snow load
(L. O'Toole)

heavy equipment clearing the snow load
(L. O'Toole)

boats inside on the bottom floor
(L. O'toole)

When a disaster like this strikes, I can’t help but wonder how it will affect the economy of the town, which is primarily commercial fishing.  If fishermen lost their boats, will they be able to make a season out of it?

There are just so many variables in fishing, like state of your boat, your gear, currents, how much sleep you just got, or didn’t get.  And so many things outside our control that affect our fisheries such as earthquakes in Japan, fuel prices going through the roof, dentists in Fairbanks (anyone remember that?), and record snow falls.  All I know is we can only control what we do or don’t do.  So I guess we’ll all just keep on keeping on and hope for the best. 

I’m out.