I have been anxious to go out.

It is my first day commercial fishing with my father again. As he fires up our 115-horsepower Suzuki boat motor, it roars on the back of our fishing boat, a baby-blue 22-foot fiberglass hardtop. Our crew includes Mary Hyatt, my younger brother Pete, and my father, the captain. My dad will soon be idling out of the newly renovated boat harbor in Kotzebue, our village of about 3,200 people located 30 miles inside the Arctic Circle in Northwest Arctic Alaska. Soon we'll be edging under the first bridge before cruising across Swan Lake. We will be fishing primarily for chum salmon, an especially good source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids in the commercial salmon marketplace.

In anticipation, Mary rushes to the back of the boat to pull up the back anchor. She remains calm and relaxed, a seasoned fisherwoman even still a teenager who has pulled anchor and set out on the water multiple times before. As we zoom out of Swan Lake, I realize we are missing a key piece of equipment.

"Where are our nets?" I ask.

"We're heading to go get them," replies Mary, ever confident that everything is as it should be.

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