You are invited to join me in the final summers of salmon traps in Alaska. The salmon traps, owned by corporations in the lower 48 states and loosely regulated by the federal government, efficiently harvested the salmon and gradually depleted the salmon runs. The management and most of the employees came from the south in June and returned to the south in September. The canned salmon, the money from wages and the profits returned to the lower 48 states. When Alaska became a state in 1959, passionate resident Alaskans immediately banned traps to create more jobs for Alaskan fishermen and residents.
After my two seasons with Severin on the Rap III, I joined the Alaska Fishermen’s Union in Seattle and during the last three years of traps, I worked on a cannery tender for Nakat Packing Corporation. I came north in the summer and picked up my wages in Seattle in the fall. I was young, eager and working on boats became a lifelong practice that I yearned to return to every spring.
Tim Olson
TENDERMEN'S ALASKA SEASON
Begins in June
in Ballard preparing
the tender for the journey to Alaska.
Scrub, paint, varnish
change oil, take fuel, water,
stow summer supplies.
Throw off the dock lines,
drop to sea level in the Ballard locks,
set courses for Point No Point,
Scarlet Pt., Milbank Sound.
Wheel watch, six on-six off
midnight mug-up, BLT’s, tomato soup
Alaska in eighty hours
at seven knots.
TOWING & LOCATING TRAPS IN JULY
Cable secured between Rolfy’s winch
and the trap’s head log
the tender makes one to two knots headway
depending on the tidal current
pulling the trap to location
close to a shore and a point
where it will wait silently
for the salmon to blunder
into the trap’s chicken wire prison.
Rigging scow and crew arrive
to anchor the trap,
secure a chicken wire lead to the shore
to force the migrating salmon
to swim into the trap.
The salmon circle about
until brailed from the trap’s net spillers
into the tender’s hold.
AUGUST SALMON SEASON
Brings success or failure
happy grins or anxious frowns.
A thermometer in the store
gives a daily total
of salmon cases
piling up in the warehouse.
The Rolfy races at six knots
between cannery and traps,
brails the salmon out of the spillers.
Tender skipper keeps radio schedule
with Andy in the the radio shack at the cannery,
“How many salmon
will Waterfall have in the morning?”
Traps brailed,
drop anchor in a bay,
brail out seiners’ daily catch,
until midnight.
Navigate the Cabbage Patch,
tie-up at the fish ladder.
cannery crew unloads the fish,
crew scrubs the hold.
Not much sleep for tender men in August.
Cannery Sunday is Monday in Waterfall.
Check mail, play Sunday poker or pinochle,
shoot hoops,
guzzle whiskey chased with water,
Sunday night dance at the Filipino hall.
Set course for Cape Muzon on Tuesday.
,
BEACH TRAPS - HEAD HOME - SEPTEMBER
Is such a delicious time,
season’s over,
salmon in the can
cases loaded on the steamer.
Time to pull traps,
tug away at one and a half knots,
beach them for the winter.
Easy overtime!
Mid-September arrives,
wind chilly, sharp,
Parades of Grummund Gooses
empty the cannery,
superintendent pulls his shades.
We take fuel, lash the boom,
throw off the dock lines,
push our way down Kaigani Straits.
Listen to the weather forecast
from Lucy Island,
cloudy, light southeasterly,
we take a direct course across Dixon Entrance.
Frank wakes me at 11:30 PM.
Groggily I stumble into the galley,
cup of coffee, clam chowder.
I step into the blackness of the wheelhouse.
Pt. Marsh light blinks
on the port side behind us,
I take the wheel, stare at the compass.
The Rolfy pushes up one side of the swell,
slides down the other side.
I am giddy.
Going home.
Dawn comes slowly,
shoulders droop,
eyes won’t stay open.
Dixon entrance behind us,
Grenville Channel ahead.
Two and a half days from home.
To view and read the previous Salmon Summers III – click here
Thanks for sharing Dave and Tim. Those lovely pictures make me yearn for commercial fishing…Those surely were the days and both of you and Ken got in on the previous generation(traps and all) from when I entered the trolling scene. I always will think of SE Alaska as being my home…always felt at home there with the peace and rugged people there. Too much work for me now physically but I can relive the “good” ole days through daydreams.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the kind words! I’ve been surprised at the number of visitors to the blog who enjoy reading the posts about Alaska (both Lorelie’s Sitka Scenes and my posts about working on the boats. And there is more coming. Another of Dave’s stories about his season on the Golden West and a follow up from me on Waterfall days with some character sketches and about life in the cannery during August. Might be awhile before I get to the seining years on the St. John & Glenda Fay.
Tim