YIPEE! HUGE NEWS!

Anglo American pulls out of  Pebble Mine!  What does that mean?  Basically, Anglo American,  the company with the deep pockets is bailing out of the project because the proposed mine is "too risky".   Ya think?  You think putting the world's largest open pit mine at the headwaters of the world's largest wild salmon run is too risky?  I'm glad they finally see it my way.  And the way of 654,000 other folks who signed the EPA comment petition to protect the Bristol Bay Watershed. (http://www.savebristolbay.org/blog/sportsmen-to-epa-stop-pebble). 

Anyway, you can read all about it right here: http://www.adn.com/2013/09/16/3077905/anglo-american-pulls-out-of-alaskas.html or here: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130916/anglo-american-withdraws-pebble-mine-project.

Looks like if enough of us little folk speak loud enough, we can make a difference!  Good job everyone who helped make a stink about all this!  Lets just hope this is the beginning of the end. And what would I have to say to Pebble Mine?  Just what the skipper of the Bristol Bay gillnetter Licka-D-Split would say, "Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you".

The Bristol Bay Report

At last!  Photo highlights from my Bristol Bay season aboard the f/v Fischer.  The last you heard from me I was heading west to gillnet Bristol Bay back in June.  Admittedly, I know there has been radio silence from me for some time, my apologies.   I've been back from the Bay for a few weeks now but was off on my next venture already, without time to write or internet connection.  I have been gearing up to write a post but dragging my anchor on it.  However, today I ran into my buddy Dan at Costco and he guilted me into submission and told me I need to update my blog.  So here ya go, the Bristol Bay report.

I had a good season. We fished Naknek and Egegik.  The weather was (mostly) nice, the crew was (mostly) nice, (OK, that's a lie, but I'm trying to be nice, more scuttlebutt on that later), the skipper had his shit together, and though there weren't a ton of fish around, we managed to scrape up a few.  The price had jumped from $1.00 a pound last year to $1.50 a pound, so that helped.   Shoots, last time I fished out there, back in 2006, it was .70 cents a pound, so I can't complain. Really, I can't complain,  I signed a waiver.  Haha, just kidding.  Actually, there wasn't much to complain about, I had a blast out there! We'll, I can find a few things to complain about, but I'll have to fill you in bit by bit, otherwise, we'll be swamped.  So I'll start by showing you the boat I was on and introducing you to most of the crew.  Without further ado, the f/v Fischer.

f/v Fischer, just slightly out of the channel

As you can see here, going dry is a common occurrence out in the Bay, too.  We were running in after an opener and missed the channel, just slightly, by about 20 feet.  Skipper said he knew it was around here somewhere. So close.... It was blowing about 40 out and kind of lumpy, so being on solid ground was a nice treat.  Until we had some mending to do.   Dry or not, mending gear in a gale is no fun.  But, I digress. Enjoy the photos and my little video.  Its my first attempt at downloading a vid, I hope it works.

Fischer, who the boat is named after

Fischer and his dad, Kelly, the skipper

myself and Sean, the other deckhand

This is the first of my Bay report.  More to dribble in soon.  Until then, go slime a salmon!

Reluctant fisherman or just reluctant to write

Until today, I have been a reluctant fisherman, or at least a reluctant writer.  As you may or may not have noticed, my blog has been nothing but photos the past few weeks.  This started out innocently enough, lack of sleep or time to write due to copious amounts of fishing time, cool photos seemed the perfect solution.  But, now that I am back on land and the storm of the season is over, I am still tempted to just post photos, again.  Then I decided to roll my sleeves up and try to figure out why.

I can’t deny there have been some rogue waves the past few months.  As some of you may know, my mom past away back in April after a yearlong battle with cancer.  Two days after the funeral, I hauled my ass cross country from Ohio to Alaska, some 4000 miles, driving 14 hours a day for 7 days straight to make the 1^st fishing opener in Cordova.

Fishing took off like gangbusters and it was full fart from the get-go with 48-hour openers and shitty weather to boot, kicking all of our asses the whole time.  (There were some fish caught, though.) This was about the time my now ex but then current boyfriend check out of my life so fast he left skid marks.  After getting our asses kicked on the Flats for a month, we heading to the Sound where we proceeded to put in 20-hour days, fishing over 500 hours in 32 days.  It takes you normal folks about 4 months to put in 500 hours of work; we did it in a month!  Again, we caught some fish and made some money but I won’t say it weren’t hard earned cake.   That last week I tweaked my low back the day before our biggest. Set. Of. The. Season!   Honestly, our net was sinking.  I took near fatal doses of Vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and moved around like Mr. Roboto to get through the pain.  I had to dose myself at each change of time to get through.  High tide, take two.  Low tide, take two more. 

But, now I’m back in town, my back is on the mend, and I’m back to mending gear.  Having weathered those storms, the forecast is looking good.  V10.  After 2 days of sunshine and 4 trips up the ski-hill, the tide has finally turned! I met self discipline (SD meet Jen, "nice to meet you" Jen meet SD, "grumble, grumble")  but I lost 5 pounds, I’m going to a Poetry Workshop in a few weeks held in my most favorite place in the whole wide world, McCarthy Alaska.  (Gearing up for Fisher Poets early this year!) I’m having fun flirting with a hot man from Anchorage, I’m applying for Writer’s Residencies and looking into going to Bali then hiking in Nepal and inquiring to be on some T.V. program I know nothing about (wish me luck!)  So, finally, I have something to write to all you about.  I couldn’t quite make myself do it until the tide had turned.

But hey, when a fisherman gets a water haul, she just turns around and sets the net out again. 

What fishermen do in their spare time...

pick shrimp pots in PWS

take photos of cool boats

or funny boats

or funny names of boats

they take pictures of starfish

weigh really big red salmon

have sourdough pancakes with fishin' buddies  Leo & Curly

catch some zzz's in public places like park benches in Whittier

make cajun shrimp boil

eat shrimp fajitas with Danny &  Dan

watch other fishermen catch fish

take 4 AM photos of sunrises

document celebrity sitings, the Northwestern from Deadliest Catch

talk on their cell phones

SUP setnet sites

lug toys around

bullshit with each other

get dumped off on rocks to stretch the legs during sets after days on the boat

My 1st Rejection Letter!

Last week I sent a handful of query letters to agents. I did what I read to do, research different agencies to find out what they specialize in. Some only deal in poetry, fiction, and whatnot. So, I did my legwork. I even found an article in Writer's Digest of agents looking for new writers. I composed my letter, double checked I got the agents name spelled correctly (and more importantly, made sure it wasn't addressed to the wrong agent), then hit send.

I know the opening of the letter was risky. Hey, I'm a fisherman, I take risks. The letter started with No Shit! There I was staring at the bow of a 1000 foot cruise ship heading right for me. If I don't get out of here, like now, this thing will crush me like a bug on a windshield.

I thought I would start with an excerpt of my book. This is the story of when I almost got ran over by a huge cruise ship. Technically, commercial fishing vessels have the right away. However, in reality, I have a 28 foot fiberglass boat. If I had exercised my right, I don't think I would be here right now. Obviously, I did make it through that day, but you'll have to read the book to find out the rest of the story.

Anyway, this week I got my first rejection letter. I'm actually quite excited about it. For one, I heard back! From what I understand, in most cases, that's not the case. And secondly, it was positive. The gal said that while it sounds like I have an interesting story, its just not what she is currently looking for. So, that's good news, right? I mean, it could have said countless other things like: it is poorly written, or the story is junk, or whatever. So, I'm happy about it.

I just met with a different women who may be doing some editing for me and giving me feedback. She has a sample of my work and I'll be hearing back from her next week. I'm also working on my proposal. So, the ball is still rolling in the right direction. Everything is taking a little longer than I would like it to. That's the hard part as I am not a patient person. I got my father's patience, but I only got half. This is a good lesson in patience.

And there you have it, the haps for the week.

Attached is a picture of me and Josh from 1997 aboard the Triton. The Triton is a 70' boat that was built in about 1945 for the USCG. It now tenders on the Copper River Flats and Prince William Sound. We are celebrating sunshine with an adult beverage and you can see gill netters waiting to deliver in the background.