Commercial fishing is a lot of things, yet too many people forget it’s also a lot of fun. Foul weather, uncertain catches, sleep deprivation, and high costs often defer the idea of enjoyment until after the season is over. But for Alaskan fisherman Nels Ure, lightening the mood with silliness and play helps sweeten the bitter grind of a Bristol Bay salmon season.
If your TikTok algorithm has you pegged as a fisherman, then you’ve likely already seen the levity that Ure brings to his work on deck. Dancing, lip-syncing, and clever use of popular memes in a commercial fishing setting have garnered his account (@nelzure) tens of thousands of views.
“I was in the humor realm this summer. A lack of sleep can really warp what you think is funny,” Ure said. “But behind it all, I’m trying to show the fishery in its best light and why it’s worth protecting.”
To that end, Ure, a 30-year-old husband and father of two, has gone from Naknek to the Ivy League. He is currently in New Haven, Conn., in his final year at the Yale School of the Environment, en route to a master’s degree in environmental management. His path to Yale is thanks to “healthy competition” with his wife, Gabriella Hill, who earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in May.
“I’m so proud of her, going from humble beginnings in Naknek to the most prestigious law school in the country,” Ure said.
Ure began fishing with his father, John Ure, at age 14 and has been back every season since. His father was a fisherman from Kodiak, and his mother was a teacher in Naknek; they met one summer at the Red Dog Inn, a popular watering hole for fishermen and locals alike. Ure grew up in Kodiak, but like his father before him, he also found love during a salmon season. There were a few summers of exchanging love letters with Gabriella, who was fishing on her father’s boat, via salmon tenders. Soon Ure moved to Naknek year-round to live with his future wife.
While he grew up in the fishery, it was the fight against the Pebble Mine, the proposed large-scale open-pit copper and gold mine at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed, where he found his calling. In 2019, he made a push for a write-in candidate for a seat on the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, advocating a harder line against development of the mine. He won and served on the board until 2022.
During that time, he began working with the Bristol Bay Borough and moved from public information officer to assistant finance director, a.k.a. the tax collector. While the job wasn’t always comfortable, as he had to call people he knew and tell them to pay their bills, it showed him how much the salmon fishery provided for the community.
“Raw fish taxes, fishery business tax, boat tax…these are what keep our roads paved, schools funded, and clean drinking water flowing,” Ure said.
Through the unglamorous job, his deep commitment to the fishery and the habitat that supports it was strengthened. Around this time in 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency was taking public comment on the 404(c) review of the Pebble Mine under the Clean Water Act. His term ended, and he joined Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay as communications director, helping mobilize the fleet during the public comment period. The EPA ruled against the mine developers in early 2023.
“The way that I view the content I produce, while at times silly, is always a good representation of the fishery and the people and environment that sustain it,” Ure said.
In late August, Ure was in Brussels, Belgium, for the Arctic Youth Dialogue (AYD), an initiative of the European Union and the World Wildlife Fund, bringing lessons learned from Bristol Bay salmon to the international dialogue.
