Fish Tails, Bear Tales & Breakfast at the Red Dog

The salmon have arrived.

In a stunning flash of silver scales, the Naknek River (one of 4 river districts in Bristol Bay) broke a record for the largest harvest ever. Over 500,000 individual sockeye salmon were caught between drift boat and setnet fishermen. The following picture depicts the bounty reaped by a set netter on the Naknek beach:

As you can see in the picture, a gill net is strung between two lines: the cork line and the lead line. This creates a 'wall' of net that the salmon swim into in their quest for up-river spawning. A setnet is defined by one end of the net being attached to the beach. A drift boat (seen in the background of the picture) drifts along with the net behind him.
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Last night Sage, my mom, Marie (a coworker of ours) and I took Inca for a walk on the beach. We were planning on looping from the beach, up through a cannery and then to the road and back. However, halfway down the beach, we noticed a group of grizzlies feeding at the edge of the cannery dock. We stopped and surveyed the scenario and decided to turn back.
At that moment, a sow and her cub came ambling down the beach right towards us., from the opposite direction. We were trapped by bear, water and cliff.

A setnetter yelled at us to get in her jeep and chase them off (to save her heavily laden net from the approaching grizzlies). Feeling gallant and far less scared, we revved the engine of the old car and sped towards the approaching bears, hand on the horn. The bears stopped and turned curiously at the noise being emitted from the horn. It was a stuttering toot that was more soothing than scary. However, the approach of the car was enough and soon they sped up the cliff and out of sight.

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I woke up to a gentle growl from Inca followed by the thumping of her tail on the floor. My brothers had transferred fishing districts and had to wait out 48 hours before fishing (part of the salmon management program that prevents fishermen from running district to district undercutting other, more patient fishermen). In the transfer interim, Ben and Nick stopped by the office to take a shower, do laundry and take their big sister out for a 6 am breakfast at the Red Dog. Neither brother had slept in 42 hours and this was the first hot meal they had sat down to in over two weeks.



It is 4th of July, 2007. Outside is miserably cold and wet, but inside is cozy with people. The fish are swimming, my brothers are safe and all is well.

Naknek Dogs

Sasha the neighbor dog is a husky with the most beautiful color eyes I have ever seen

Life After Traveling

It is high time that this blog was updated and there is no better time than the present. So much has happened since we returned from Indonesia. Nick began his career at the Blue Ocean Institute in New York where he currently acts as Seafood Program Manager. I joined him in New York after a few weeks spent with my family in Seattle. In March we moved to Brooklyn where we live in an artist's loft in the Greenpoint neighborhood. It is a deliciously quiet area (considering its location in such a huge city) and our building is right on the water. Our roof deck boasts one of the most beautiful views of the city-- perfect for a sunny evening glass of wine after work.



A new addition was adopted into our little family, Inca the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Inca is currently 17 weeks old and an extremely well-behaved puppy. Nick is very fortunate to work on 500 acres of land and takes her to work everyday. So although she is technically a city dog, her life looks nothing like your typical apartment dog.

I am currently in Alaska, Inca in tow, for the summer. I work with my family's salmon processing company for the months of June and July in beautiful Bristol Bay. Inca loves her Alaskan life and wakes me up in the middle of the night when the grizzlies are rummaging around outside my window.



While I am working in Alaska, Nick is in New York trying to keep cool in what will be both of our first summers on the Eastcoast. He doesn't have too wait too long for some cool relief-- in the beginning of August Nick will join Inca and I in Alaska for two weeks of exploring, kayaking and adventuring.

When we are not working, traveling or playing with Inca, there is plenty to keep us occupied. Nick has been building his photographic portfolio (now quite impressive in size & prowess) and can be found roaming the city for the next perfect shot. I am working on a book titled A Green Guide to Brooklyn that will be a reference guide for people who want to live a more sustainable life here in the city.

Picture Poetry

6 December 2006: BALI

Medewi Sunset

It is a beautiful quiet evening on the Indonesian island of Bali and I am enjoying the peaceful sunset while Nick, my brother and two of my brother’s best childhood friends are out with a fisherman trying their luck at providing a fresh tuna dinner. Nick and I arrived on Monday and met up with my younger brother (confusingly also a Nick) who is here traveling and surfing. We spent two un-delightful nights in Kuta (famous for the 2002 Bali bombings and hedonistic tourism) before heading off to more remote and less-traveled regions. First stop is a surfing spot famous to the local Balinese in a little town called Medewi.

Beach Meditation

Our day began at the beach. Brother Nick and company immediately hit the waves. Nick paddled out after them with an underwater camera to capture the moment of big-wave bliss. I stayed on the beach and watched the morning turn to day with a surfing backdrop.

The Morning's Surf Wounds

We are staying in a rustic little beach guesthouse where we have three bamboo huts to sleep in and a friendly host that makes the best watermelon juices around. Last night the guys met a local fisherman who sold them some lobsters, which his mother cooked and returned to us at dinnertime. Life is simple and salty at the moment…

Beach Read

All in an Eye

1 December 2006: SINGAPORE

At the conclusion of the photo assignment, Nick and I headed up to Singapore to renew our visas and visit a friend from Oxford. We arrived early on Friday morning to the shining face of our friend Wei-Leong and were quickly whisked into what would be a very comprehensive tour of this city-state. Singapore was almost sterile compared to Jakarta. It was delightful to walk the clean streets and admire the architecture and tourist attractions without constant ‘hello misters, where you from misters, where you going misters’. Singapore is organized in almost a Chinese sense of the word, but is flavored with a dash of leftover British colonialism, an interesting conglomerate to say the least.

Wei declared his mission for the weekend to us immediately upon arrival. He had a long list of the tourist sights we were to see (every moment fairly packed with one optical delight after another), but more importantly, we were going to try every type of food that Singapore is famous for. This is no mean feat as Singapore cooks a mixture of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and even has its own culinary dishes. Needless to say, Nick and I left Singapore with full bellies (having accomplished Wei’s motives) and great memories.