Smells like team spirit
Every year, as we start to get Crew Shots submissions, I receive them as visual reminders of what a wide-ranging industry this is. It doesn't matter if I'm looking at a photo of a crew of 20 lined up around the fo'c'sle of a Bering Sea trawler or a chubby toddler plopped on a lobster trap, they always make me smile.
Many of the emails and hand-written notes we get with the images express the sentiment that this is the reader's favorite issue of the year. And I have to say, it just might be mine. Thank you for making our industry what it is. We would not be here without all of you folks, who run the boats and work the decks. We're also grateful to those who take the controls back home. Plenty of these Crew Shots come from the wives and mothers of fishermen (many of whom take their own turns on deck). Without their commitment to holding down the shoreside operations of commercial fishing businesses and families, we wouldn't have this issue, and we probably wouldn't have much of an industry to speak of. Begin the hunt for your favorite photo on page 22.
Fishing brethren come out of the woodwork not only for Crew Shots, but also anytime there's a crisis in a fishing community. West Coast fishing groups have been reaching out to help those fishing families affected by Superstorm Sandy, primarily in New Jersey. At press time, these towns were taking stock and drying themselves out, as NF correspondent Kirk Moore's story reveals on page 20.
We also have a follow-up story to Tele Aadsen's heart-rending blog entry on finding Ryan Harris, the Fish Tote Survivor. Tele is a fisherman, fisherpoet and fish blogger. In short, she's a member of many fishfolk communities. I was in touch with Tele immediately after she and her partner in fishing and in life, Joel Brady-Power, happened upon Harris. Tele wanted to get out the word of this amazing discovery because it was a triumph of the human spirit and an illustration of what fishing communities do when someone is in trouble — we band together. Tele's story begins on page 5, and the full text is available on our website.
A community of another kind sprung to life when a few attendees of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute's annual advisory meeting got stuck in Kodiak before the rest of the meeting's participants could get there. Read about NF Assistant Editor Melissa Wood's journey through the fog this summer on page 16.
As usual, we got so many amazing shots that we spread the coverage of Crew Shots to the Last Set page (52) and will do the same in our next issue. We will also continue to feature your photos at NationalFisherman.com all year long. So if you don't see yours here, check out the February issue. Until then, we'll see you online.
— Jessica Hathaway
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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