In the Air

Friday Johanna and I were driving through town when I turned to her, "Feels like summer doesn't it?" Couldn't put my finger on it, but there seemed to be something in the air.

Dillingham is a fishing town. Not a fishing town like Dutch Harbor, but a Bristol Bay fishing town. Our main fishery is a sockeye salmon fishery typically lasting a few weeks at the end of June and first half of July. The sockeye return to our major river systems in search of their natal streams. Fisherman intercept them in the estuaries (where salt transitions to fresh water) typically referred to as the 'bays'. Regulations require boats to be no longer then 32 feet using gill nets between 50 to 200 fathoms long depending on the circumstance.

Without beginning a explanation of the Bristol Bay fishery I'm not qualified to give, let's just say that today's Bristol Bay fisherman may be construction workers from Anchorage, lawyers from Seattle, professional fisherman who spend 9 months on the water each year, families from our smallest villages, or any sort of character. It is a diverse group complete with conflicts and mistrust, division and accusations. Just the same, they all gather in Dillingham, Naknek, and other smaller 'bay' communities hoping for a bountiful catch.

The first of those individuals are here. Processing company staff are beginning to prepare the canneries and fisherman have begun climbing around their boats, kicking the tires, and making their plans. There is also a smaller herring fishery West of Dillingham in the bays around Togiak that ushers in the fishing season each May.

It's not only the fisherman and cannery workers that mark the changing season, it's an entire seasonal infrastructure needed to support them. Restaurants have opened, fishing supply stores are opened, net hanging outfits, aluminum fabricators, fiberglass folks, mechanics and the like are opening their doors preparing for the season.

Growing up in such an environments serves to define summer as a time to be busy. The sun is up most hours of the day and things are hopping. It's a time to work hard and play hard. Grandpa used to say, "Make hay while the sun shines." The sun rarely sets during a Bristol Bay summer and there's plenty of hay to be made.

The seasons are so different here. Right now the last white remnants of winter cling to a brown and apparently lifeless ground. But before long everything will be green and people will walk about in their t-shirts on sunny days. February's fourty below temperatures serving as distant memories.

We are not quite there yet however and there is still snow and ice to melt before summer takes hold. But if you've lived this before. If this is one of the rythms of your life, it is unmistakable. Slow down. Lift your head. Feel it in the air.