AND TO THINK I KNEW HIM BACK WHEN...

Aerial photo of the Herring Fleet with their nets out.

The return of the Herring is kind of this town's way of

knowing winter is ending and everything is coming back

to life. There still has to be snow before the Herring

return, so we know it is still going to be cold enough

to snow well into March.

Right before they return we watch the Natives going

by the house all day long in boats with stacks of 

evergreen branches that they anchor down into the 

water along different shorelines so the herring will 

come and attach their eggs onto them. I have heard 

that they are so covered in these tiny eggs that you 

can barely lift them out of the water. We went fishing 

last year and everything in the water was completely 

covered by these tiny eggs. My younger brother's island

property had herring eggs so deep along his shoreline

that they covered the top of your foot when we walked

in them.

I think the Herring came in April last year and it was

really, really cold and wet. It is so cool, though! The 

whole town is waiting and listening on the radio for 

the GO signal to be given. We can see all the vessels 

going right by our house and it is amazing to watch 

the entire fleet go by all day long. The processors are 

massive and they come from all over to hold all 

the herring. The huge processor The Northwestern

that everyone recognizes from the TV show The 

Deadliest Catch was here for quite awhile.

The Humpback Whales are right in the middle of

all the boats, feeding, flipping their fins and some

were even breaching right by the boats! One of

the whales did get tangled in a net last year and

they brought in a lady in town that is a Whale

specialist to determine everything was O.K.

Last year during the Herring Sac Roe Fishery the 

National Geographic came to town to film a special 

about the fishery. My brother Keith was fortunate 

enough to be asked to go along on one of the boats 

right into the middle of the fishery as it happened.

Of course he took his camera and took pictures that 

National Geographic has posted on  their website here.

If you click the photos link next to the yellow Overview 

button you will see some of the photos he took--cool huh?

National Geographic will be airing that Herring 

Fishery episode they filmed here on Sunday, March 15th.

Here is a bit of history and explanation of the Herring Fishery:

Alaska has a colorful history of herring fisheries 

beginning with its earliest aboriginal inhabitants who 

depended on herring for food. Southeast Alaska Natives still 

savor herring eggs which they obtain by allowing herring to 

spawn on hemlock boughs that have been placed in the water 

during the spring. 

When their herring stocks declined during the 1960s,

Japan began importing herring roe from other countries.

A lucrative market for herring eggs and eggs on kelp 

prompted the development of Alaska's roe herring fisheries 

and remain the principle utilization of herring at present.

Sac roe fisheries harvest herring just before spawning 

using either purse seine or gillnet gear. Herring are 

transferred from the catcher boats to  larger tenders, 

which deliver the herring to large, Japanese "tramp" 

freighters. After the herring are transported to Japan, 

the roe is removed from the females, and their carcasses, 

along with the males, are made into fish meal. The roe is 

salted and packaged as a product that sometimes sells for

 over $100/lb in Japan. In recent years the Alaska sac 

roe harvest has averaged about 50,000 tons (45,500 mt), 

almost all of which ends up in the Japanese marketplace.

The BOF also enacts regulations that control the types and 

amounts of fishing gear that may be used, allocate the 

allowable harvest among user groups, and determine the 

range of dates allowed for fisheries. ADF&G determines 

the exact opening and closing times each season. For sac roe 

fisheries, openings are timed to occur when herring have 

produced the maximum amount of roe. 

Because herring eggs are deposited on intertidal and subtidal 

vegetation, herring are particularly vulnerable to oil spills that 

occur near the time of spawning, such as the Exxon Valdez oil 

spill of 1989. Although immediate mortality of herring 

following the Exxon Valdez oil spill was thought to be low,

a population crash that became apparent in 1993 may be 

linked to the earlier spill.