In Bristol Bay, fishing means family

For the few short weeks of the fishing season, fishing crews can become like family. And whether commercial or subsistence, many crews are family. And those families are passing on fishing wisdom to the next generation.

Dora Andrew Ihrke is from Aleknagik. Her father was a commercial fisherman, and he taught her how to navigate. Decades ago, when GPS systems were new, Ihrke says he refused to use one. Instead, he showed her how to navigate using the waves and the wind.

“He pointed to the water. And out in Bristol Bay, way out there, there’s huge wells of waves and on top of that are small waves, and he watches the small waves he says they always go towards the shore. And then he’s mindful of the wind directions, he’s always watching the sky as well,” Ihrke said.

Once, Ihrke says she thought they would get lost at sea, but somehow made it safely home — even in complete fog.

“I asked him, ‘How do you do that?’ Again he pointed to the water and everywhere,” Ihrke said. “There’s certain rules about waves and bubbles that tell how close you are to shore, what you might expect. Things people don’t naturally look for. He knew all about that.”

Fishing with family is a strong tradition in Bristol Bay, and plenty of kids start learning young. Up in Lake Aleknagik, five year-old Willa Carter is out on a skiff learning from her mom Jackie, a biologist with the University of Washington.

This summer, they are fishing for tiny plankton, instead of salmon, and Willa is helping to collect water samples in big brown jugs

“We take it back to camp, and we filter the water and then Jackie brings it back to work and then she puts it somewhere in her work office,” Willa said.

“That’s true, I put it in a freezer in my work office,’ Jackie said.

Like many kids in Bristol Bay, Willa is spending the summer learning by doing. Every time the boat stops, she throws a buoy with a thermometer out in the lake to take measurements. She’s measuring how hot the water is, or how cold. Jackie asks Willa what that is called.

“Can you tell me in my ear?” Willa asked. Jackie whispers.”Water temperature!” Willa said.

Jackie says that Willa might even know more about collecting fisheries data than some of her graduate students.

Triston Cheney also spent a few summers learning with Jackie and the other scientists at the University of Washington’s Fisheries Research Institute. But he learned to commercial fish from his grandfather, starting when he was nine years old.

“All my memories, all my good ones with him are just fishing hard, catching a lot of fish, working really hard, and putting a lot of pounds on the board,” Cheney said.

Triston also talked about the biggest day he and his grandfather had. “We broke a year on a roller one year. And I swear to God, it was like inches away from hitting him. He was unfazed with it. And that was our biggest day we’ve ever done.”

Cheney says he remembers his grandfather teaching him tricks for how to catch and find fish, along with reading the weather, the water, and the fish. “They’re secrets though!” Cheney exclaimed.

Now, Cheney is the one passing down the family secrets. Cheney’s brother bought his grandfather’s permit, and he bought the boat. This summer, he is captaining and has been fishing with his two younger brothers and with their cousin. He says he’s trying to share the value of a good work ethic with them.

“You got to be able to work for the fish. You know, when the fish are there you just got to work. And then you know, finding the fish, that’s my job. And just making sure we’re putting them from the ocean into our boat is their job,” Cheney said.

Beverly Hayano started set netting in 1971. Her mom died in April that year. And Hayano took over her fishing business in Igushik. That June was her first time fishing, and she had never set a net by herself before.

“The first time I set my net the tide came in and my net went up river ‘cause I didn’t have it tied right,” Hayano said. Her grandmother rescued the net.

That first summer, Hayano was just 16. Thankfully, her grandmother Mary Tilden stepped in to help her learn what she needed to know.

“Thank God for grandma, she was very patient. She was the one that had the net out. My job for the first two years in my training with her was to go empty the gut bucket and go carry water from the creek to wash the fish. I wasn’t allowed to cut fish. The first couple years I had to learn to do everything else first,” Hayano said.

Hayano says that first summer definitely brought surprises — like when she lit the stove by herself for the first time.

“The first morning I woke up and I put the wood in and I threw a little can of gas in there and I lit the match and threw it in and it blew up in my face!” Hayano said.

After running over to her grandmother’s house for breakfast, Hayano says her grandma could tell she had thrown gas in the stove. “And I went, ‘Yeah, how do you know?’ She said, ‘Go look in the mirror.’ My bangs were singed, my eyebrows were singed, my face was black,” Hayano said.

For Hayano, fishing with her grandmother was a way to reconnect with a subsistence lifestyle after a number of years away.

“My mom had gotten TB, and so we were sent to a children’s home in Palmer. So, separated from our families, from our way of life, from everything that we do. So that’s why I didn’t really know anything when I first went fishing, because that wasn’t a part of our early years. And so going down to Igushik and learning to fish was all new stuff for me,” Hayano said.

Of course, fishing with family also means dealing with family. That’s true whether it’s the family you grew up with or the folks who became like family along the way. Family, like fishing, has ups and downs. Whatever your own ups and downs, the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report is glad to be a part of your summer.