July 4: Happy Fourth of July!

This is the date that most of us in Bristol Bay think of as the peak of the season. This year, I was ready to think it was about a week past the peak. But we heard yesterday that another spike came through Port Moller, headed our way. So, we remain ready. The Bristol Bay Economic Development Council (BBEDC) has boats out test fishing at Port Moller (which, in fish time, is about a week+ from us) under very controlled conditions. They count the fish caught and conduct some scale and DNA analysis to determine which district they are bound for: Naknek/Kvichak (that's us), Egegik, Nushagak-Wood River, or Ugashik and apply a statistical model to let us know what to expect about a week+ hence. Their website is http://www.bbedc.com/?page_id=1405 and I really appreciate the science of their approach.

Even when the fishing has been slow relative to the big tides, it hasn't been that slow. The Kvichak run is returning stronger than expected - ADFG now believes that at least 7 million are coming back, up from the 5 million they expected pre-season. Regulations allow them to adjust the escapement goal mid-season to half of the return, which they have done, from a goal of 2.5 million salmon to 3.5 million. The impact of this on us is that it slows down the transfer of the drift fleet from whatever district they're in to the Naknek/Kvichak.

Sometime early in the season, each drift fisherman must "drop their card," meaning they have to commit themselves to a district, registering it with ADFG and that's the district they are allowed to fish in. One of the four mentioned above. If they want to change districts, they can, but once they drop a new card, they have to stop fishing in any district for 48 hours. That's referred to as the 48 hour transfer period. Fishermen do not like to change districts mid-season because they lose too much fishing time. This is an important management tool to the ADFG because if the drift fleet were allowed to fish freely whatever district they wanted from one tide to the next, ADFG wouldn't be able to anticipate the fishing effort (or impact) in any fishing period. The 48 hour transfer period is waived for a district once it reaches its escapement goal. By increasing the escapement goal in the Kvichak, those of us already in the Naknek/Kvichak district get a little more time fishing without the competition from the part of the hungry drift fleet that would immediately come here if they could do it without taking their gear out of the water for 48 hours.

For the sake of completeness, I should mention that there is also a fifth district: Togiak. I don't really know much about Togiak, but I do know that they are managed a little differently. People who fish in Togiak make a season long commitment.

The difference between the super heavy tides and other tides, even the ones where we have a really good catch, is whether we ever stop moving during a tide. The afternoon/ night tide of the fourth was really good for us, but it dropped off after the flood. So here we are in a beautiful sunset, rocking in the gentle breeze on the water, all in a row, waiting to go through the nets for the last time in the tide. I took this photo from the stern of the Ambi. You can see Rohan's silhouette on the left and on the right are AJ and Roger, sitting on the rail. The Ambi is tied off to the New Boat, with Jeff on the left, then Jake, David, and Sarah. The New Boat is tied off to the Bathtub, which is anchored until the end of the tide when we'll use it to deliver the last of our fish. If you squint, you might be able to see its tall fairleads beyond and through the New Boat's power roller. In the distance you can see the Grayling. That's the fleet and being the big boss lady of a fleet, we've decided that that makes me an admiral. I'll be expecting the hat in the mail any day now.

Even without the fish and the fishing, I think this is a spectacularly beautiful place to be. This is just after the sun had set and I don't know why there is a ghost sun in the photo, but it was there in real life too and it was just after midnight. The sun, though not its light, was below the horizon. The sky was this sort of turquoise color and pink and golden clouds feathered across it. I remember in third grade walking home from school and looking up to see the tall green Douglas Firs against the Seattle blue sky and thinking, "It didn't have to be this beautiful." I think that was the beginning of feeling lucky to just be able to look around and see this gorgeous world. It's possible to do and though not always easy, I think it's helpful to do, even (or especially) at the worst of times. And it was doubly beautiful tonight because to the west over the water, we got this beautiful sunset and on the beach, people were setting off their Fourth of July fireworks.

We watch where the tide is on the beach - has it receded to the sand? Is it off the sand? At about half-sand, it's time to run through the nets again if we hope to deliver those fish to the beach under outboard power. If the tide has dropped too far, the boats won't be able to get far enough onto the beach for Brad to drive the Gehl out to pluck the bags of fish out. It can be a frustrating matter of just a few feet, but in this case, a miss is as good as a mile. We have to return to the flats with the fish in the boat, only to have to transfer them by hand to the Bathtub and push them in through the mud by hand, or if there are too many, by ranger. It's always a near thing. We want to wait till the very last minute so that we can deliver as many of our ebb fish as possible under outboard power, but if we wait too long, we miss the window to deliver what we can.

So here is the noble New Boat crew, charging off into the light of the sunset and in the direction of their next-to-last ebb pick, with Sarah at the helm and Jake navigating. Jeff? Actually, that's Mighty Jeff. He's an apprentice navigator.

I was so excited that we came in with enough time for me to get out The Big Camera with tripod and manual exposure and everything to take a long exposure shot of the early moonset over the processors on the horizon.

We watched it descend and become more and more orange, and bigger and bigger, looking like it was going to land on those processors - and those processors are the size of a small village. It was a big moon that night.