The Bay

This is where I’ll be for the next month. I’ll be living and working on a 32-foot gillnetting boat with three other people – Frank and Connie, who are married, and another deckhand named Sierra. Sierra is from Cordova and this is all I know about her. We’ll be fishing for sockeye salmon.

I guess Bristol Bay has the largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery in the world. As I’ve never experienced any kind of commercial sockeye salmon fishery, or any fishery for that matter, I guess I’ll get to see what this means firsthand.

I leave tomorrow. I fly from Wrangell, to Anchorage, to King Salmon, where Frank and Connie will pick me up and we'll go to Naknek. This will be my first time as a deckhand. I guess I’ll learn a thing or two about boats and commercial gillnet fishing.