Fishing for an Open Mind

When it gets cold and dark in Alaska, I like to go fishing… In Mexico.

When I can’t do that, plan B is usually to head for Homer and get in some Winter King Fishing.

This year it looks like plan B isn’t going to happen either so I may have to finally go for the last resort,

Ice Fishing.

I’ve never been Ice Fishing before. The idea of going out on a frozen, wind-blown lake when it’s 20 degrees below zero and trying to entice a lake trout to step through a 10 inch door into my world has just never appealed to me.

I’m a purist. I think man should fish the way the good lord intended for him to fish, mostly naked under a blazing sun with one hand wrapped around a cold beer and the other wrapped around a hot girl.

I’m smart enough, however, to know that there are many wise fishermen out there who disagree with me and place a high value on Ice Fishing.

Just the other day I was reading a letter to Dr. Phil that showed how differently people might view a particular type of fishing. I’ve included the letter below, as well as Dr. Phil’s response. I think we can all learn something from his sage advice.

Dear Dr Phil ,
When I retired, I could hardly wait to spend time enjoying my favorite pastime — bass fishing. I got my own little fishing boat and tried to get my wife to join me, but she just never liked fishing. Finally, one day at the Bait &Tackle Shop, I got to talking to Sam the shop owner who it turned out loves bass fishing as much as I do. We quickly became fishing buddies. As I said the wife doesn’t care about fishing. She not only refuses to join us she always complains that I spend too much time fishing. A few weeks ago Sam and I had the best fishing trip ever. Not only did I catch the most beautiful bass you’ve ever seen, only a few minutes later Sam must have caught his twin brother! So I took a picture of Sam holding up the two nice bass that we caught and showed the picture to the wife hoping that maybe she’d get interested. Instead she says she doesn’t want me to go fishing at all anymore! And she wants me to sell the boat! I think she just doesn’t like to see me enjoying myself. What would you do? Tell the wife to forget it and continue my hobby or quit fishing and sell the boat as she insists?

Thanks, Leroy

PS Enclosed is a picture of Sam with the two bass we caught.

Dear Leroy,

Get rid of that narrow minded wife! Thats a nice pair of bass.

I’ve decided to give Ice Fishing a try.

WJ

Man bites dog. Barracuda plays the fishermen.

I must weigh in on the Palin turkey pardon controversy.

I promise that when I’m done here, I won’t mention politics again until I have cleansed your mind-palettes with something pure and noble, like fishing.

By now everyone has seen the video of the Wasilla press conference. Here it is again if you haven’t seen it.

I’m sure that the KTUU video crew was fist-pumpin’ and high-fivin’ all the way back to the city, proud of having caught a Kodak moment of our Gov screwing up another interview.

But I’m not so sure.

Everybody talks about how clueless Sarah was about what was going on behind her. But the crew asked her if she wanted to reposition for another background and she said “no worries.” She looked back at the executioner at least once during the interview, and her comment that “Certainly we’ll probably invite criticism for even doing this too.” was just a little too prescient.

I don’t believe the Palin truth squaddies when they say the Gov was set up. I don’t believe Sarah was unaware of the slaughter. I think she played the news crew like they were chumps and she managed to keep her name in the national news for another day.

I expect we’ll be seeing more incidents like this whenever Sarah starts to drift off the radar screen.

WJ

Early-voting… blessing or curse?

That which once was, no longer is.

I must be talking about Alaskan politics again.

This time, instead of flip-flopping about who won and who lost any particular race, we can’t seem to make up our minds about how many Alaskans bothered to vote. That was the head-scratcher last week when election officials were telling us that the 2008 presidential election saw the worst voter turnout this century. Now, as the absentee and early-cast ballots roll in, we’re finding out that this may have been the highest turnout in state history!

Clearly, Alaskans haven’t abandoned the democratic process. We’ve just decided to vote when and where we damn well please.

Both political parties made concerted efforts to encourage early voting by their members. The Division of Elections recommended that constituents vote early in order to avoid long lines at the polls. But now, two weeks after the election with so many races in limbo, it’s fair to ask ourselves if early voting is such a great idea after all.

Click on the audio link below to listen to a short (3 minute) podcast in which I asked a number of precinct workers if they liked the idea of early voting. The podcast was made on Nov. 9 from interviews made on election day.

Temperature goes south, so does Williwaw Jack

It’s supposed to get down to -20 this week. I had to get away for a few days even if only as far as Anchorage.

I stayed in my favorite hotel while I was there, The Historic Anchorage Hotel. It’s downtown so parking is a pain in the ass. It’s old so the floors creak and the pipes groan. The rooms are kind of small and it’s not as cheap as some of the new cookie-cutter chain hotels, but I love the place and I stay there whenever I can. The staff is great and it’s within walking distance to some nice pubs but its best feature is something that the finest 5-star resort will never be able to offer me…   

Dig it here…

WJ

The Barracuda is a migratory species

(She’s back, but not for long.)

One of the sports editors at my paper shook his head sadly as a Snickers bar clunked out of the candy machine in front of him.

“It never ends” he said.  “Election day is supposed to be the end of it but we’re going to be dealing with this shit for weeks.”

He was talking about the undecided elections for Ted Stevens’ Senate seat and Don Young’s congressional seat. The final vote tally is not expected to be completed for another two weeks (currently, they both still lead in their reelection bids). But it was clear that he was thinking beyond those races to the political turmoil ahead.

Here’s how I see the next four years playing out.

Sarah Palin will complete her first term as governor amid controversy and under constant attack from her enemies. She will not appoint herself as the temporary successor to Stevens’ Senate seat when he is expelled, even though she is legally entitled to do so. Nor will she  appoint  one of the Wasilla Mafia. She will appoint whomever the Alaska Republican Party wants her to (I’m thinking maybe Johne Binkley or Dave Cuddy).

Sarah must make nice to the Republicans. She needs them for her own nefarious plans which are to go for Lisa Murkowski’s Senate seat in 2010. Poor Lisa is nothing without her Uncle Ted in the Senate. Sarah will wax her in that election.

The barracuda is drawing a bead on Lisa Murkowski.

Maybe, she can use the same line Don Young used this year in response to Sean Parnell’s challenge to Young’s congressional seat. “I beat your dad and I’m going to beat you too.”

But the U.S. Senate is not the barracuda’s final destination. Like Hillary Clinton, she will use it as a platform from which to launch her 2012 presidential bid. She’ll use her two years in the Senate to work on her energy and foreign policy creds. She will avoid social conservative issues.

She will lose the Tina Fey glasses and the “working girl” updo with the carefully-placed wisps (I realize that the look is her trademark but even a Wasilla valley girl can see that it’s getting a little tired).

She will not win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

WJ

The nation throws the barracuda back.

As of midnight on election day there are some clear winners and some clear losers on the political front, but, because this is Alaska, there’s alot that’s not clear at all at this point.

Barack Obama is the President-elect. That much is very clear to everyone, including John McCain, who made such a gracious concession speech it almost made me want to go back and redo my vote. I think if McCain would’ve campaigned as honorably as he conceded, the election would’ve been much closer and we wouldn’t have had a new president before the polls were even closed in Alaska (a common occurrence to those of us in the Alaskan time zone).

Then Obama made his victory speech and I knew I’d cast the right vote. I felt so inspired and optimistic that I imagined what it must have been like when JFK was elected.

Unknown at this point is whether Stevens, our felonious but lovable Uncle Ted, will keep his U.S. Senate seat until he has to go up the river. I predicted that he would, just because Alaskans are so damn contrary that we would cut off our noses to spite our faces. As of now, with 72% of the precincts reporting, Stevens leads Begich 48% to 46%. It’s going to be a squeeker.

Also unknown is the fate of Congressman Don Young. With 72% of the precincts in he is leading his democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz,  51% to 44%. I predicted that Young would go down in flames.

Alaska remains a red state. No surprise there.

Sarah’s on her way home now, with a new wardrobe and a whole lot of fences to mend up here. It’s too early to say how long her gubernatorial career will last, maybe until November of 2010.

When Lisa Murkowski’s senate seat is up for grabs.

WJ

So Which is it, “Maverick” or “Loopholer”?

Gov. Sarah Palin fires her Commissioner of Public Safety at least partially because he refused to fire a trooper she had a beef with. Legal, but a little shakey on the ethical side.

Gov. Sarah Palin bills the state for more than 300 days of per diem while living at her Wasilla home. Palin divides her time equally between Wasilla and Juneau, where she is officially based, so the per diem demand is legal, but again, not exactly the actions of a moral fiscal reformer.

Gov. Sarah Palin packs her kids around with her everywhere. She has the state pay their expenses and makes sure it’s legal by insisting that her kids are invited to the functions she attends. By the way, don’t these kids ever go to school?

As the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah packs her kids around with her everywhere and gets the campaign to pick up the tab by dragging her kids onstage with her. No really, when are they in school?

The Republican National Committee buys our valley girl a whole new wardrobe worth $150,000, which they can legally do as long as she promises to give it to charity some day. Yeah, I guess that’s legal although If was Joe Six-Pack I might have something to say about my $100 campaign contribution being used to buy Sarah some sexy new stripper boots.

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Sarah is getting pretty good at finding legal loopholes and not too concerned about the ethical consequences. Her staff is getting pretty good at saying “the Governor was acting within her legal right…”

That doesn’t sound “mavericky” to me. It sounds kind of “loopholey”

WJ

God Speed, F/V Katmai

No argument about fish rights from me today. The wind is out of my sails.

In Alaska we all mourn the loss of seven fishermen (five confirmed dead, two missing and presumed dead)

Fishing Vessel Katmai in Seattle in this undated photo by Mike Fancher for the Seattle Times

from the cod processor Katmai that rolled in heavy seas and high winds Wednesday morning in the Aleutians, some 1300 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The Katmai, was one of the smaller vessels of the “head-and-gut fleet,” fisher/processors that usually work closer to shore with larger crews. Four of her crew of 11 were rescued by a Coast Guard SAR crew out of Cold Bay. (Click here for Seattle Times coverage).

Every time one of these tragedies occurs, we’re reminded, not only of just how inherently dangerous commercial fishing is, but also how very indebted we are to the Coast Guard rescue swimmers and crews who put their lives at risk every time they fly. The video below gives us a birds eye view of the aerial rescue of one of the survivors of the Katmai.

To the seven seamen lost to the sea, Rest In Peace; to the four whom we got back, welcome home; to U. S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Petty Officer Dave Couts and the rest of the crew, Thanks. Again.

I still say… Don’t buy halibut

Truth Seeker made some good points in his response to my “Don’t Buy Halibut” post.
He pointed out that the real threat to (any) fish stock is the use of destructive fishing practices and I couldn’t agree more. Fortunately, the world is finally uniting to prohibit the wanton destruction of seafloor ecosystems by deep-water, benthic bottom trawling. I’m proud that Alaska has been proactive in this issue.

Pelagic fisheries like those in the Sea of Cortez have been decimated by years of commercial longlining and drift-gillnetting  (read   “A Case Against Longlining Inside the EEC Off California” by Mike McGettigan, Founder of Sea Watch).

But these are all commercial fishing practices. To my knowledge, nobody has suggested that the fishing practices inherent in guided halibut sportfishing are either wasteful or destructive.The only charter fishing practice issue that is questionable is crew harvest and multiple lines in the water. The council has correctly prohibited both of these practices. There should never be more lines in the water than fishermen on the boat, and captain and crew should not be allowed to take fish if they have paying customers aboard.

Truth Seeker is right that all users must share equally in the conservation of the stocks. But the issue here is about allocation, not conservation. Fish are not conserved if you take away the fish from one group and give it to another.

Truth Seeker also repeatedly makes the point that you must educate yourself about this issue. Again, I agree completely and I realize that I am ignorant of many aspects of the flatfish debate.  I admit that, as a  guided sportfisherman, it’s hard for me to sympathize with the commercial fisherman’s point of view because I’ve never been in his xtratuff’s. I imagine some of them will find it difficult to understand why I feel that I’m being screwed by this deal because it singles out me (as opposed to my sportfishing friends who own their own boats) to give up half of my fish. If you commercials are frustrated to see Alaska’s flatfish going home in a tourist’s icechest, imagine how I feel, as a 35 year Alaskan resident, when I’m asked to give up my fish to help support an industry that’s owned by outside companies and fished by outside fishermen.

Don’t get me wrong, I have as many friends that are mom & pop commercial fishermen as I have that are mom & pop charter operators. I just don’t think they have any more right to Alaska’s fish than I do.

There’s just one more point that Truth Seeker made that I want to respond to because it touches on one of the main criticisms I have about last week’s NPFMC ruling.

Truth Seeker said,  “The idea that a charter caught fish is worth so much more than a IFQ fish (why don’t we give the oil wells to the mom and pops since the oil would be worth so much more to the little operator than the corporations.’” He didn’t finish the thought but I think I understand what he was getting at; that a fish is a fish and its value is not determined by who kills it.  I beg to differ.

From the state’s perspective, a charter caught fish is way more valuable than a commercially caught fish. The tourists that come to Alaska to fish spend big-time scratch for the experience, and I’m not just talking about airfare and fishing licenses. Their outside dollars are found in the bars and the restaurants, the  hotels and the B&B’s, the grocery stores and the gift shops, the taxi cabs and the car rentals of every small Alaskan town they visit. They help to support whole communities, not just sleazy waterfront bars.

Of course, I can’t prove this claim with statistics. The reason I can’t is because there has never been a definitive study done of the economic impact on the state and on individual communities by these fishing tourists. A least not until last year, when Southwick Associates, a respected research firm, was contracted, by the Sport Fish Division of ADF&G to conduct just such a study. That study has now been completed and the final draft is in the process of being reviewed prior to its December, 2008 release. In less than two months, we will know what the value of a charter caught fish is.

What pisses me off about the NPFMC is that they refused to consider this important knowledge before making their ruling on user group allocation. They refused to wait two short months to consider information that might justify increasing the sportfishing allocation rather than decreasing it.

Some of the members of the council are almost certainly lobbyists for whichever industry they represent, but others are intelligent, reputable and critical scientists that know that the more information they have about any issue, the more valid will be their conclusion.

To me, that makes this whole NPFMC allocation ruling stink worse than a salmon carcass left in the icechest for two weeks in July.

Which, incidently, makes a fine bait for Ling Cod.

WJ

Don’t Buy Halibut

While the McCain campaign touts Sarah Palin’s reformist credentials by (rightfully) citing her stand against the exploitive, anti-Alaska practices of the big oil companies, another equally exploitive outside interest is quietly gaining ground in its efforts to steal another valuable resource from the state. And this time, it’s being done with the implicit help of that same “maverick” governor. (More about this issue in future posts).

Last week in Anchorage, after three days of testimony, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted 10 to 1 to approve a motion made by commercial halibut fishermen to further reduce the number of halibut taken by charter fishing operators in Southeast Alaska.

The plan that was approved will cut in half the number of halibut that charter fishermen are allowed to catch in area 2C (southeast waters). Since the halibut fishery is a “fully utilized resource,” the fish that
the charters are now prohibited from taking can still be harvested by the commercials (and then sold back to the charters at highly inflated prices).

This extremely controversial action further inflames passions in a “fish war” that has raged between the two groups in Alaska’s coastal communities for years. How high are the tempers running over this? Check out these bumper stickers recently seen on vehicles in Sitka, a strong commercial fishing town.

Charming sentiments aren’t they?

I’ll be writing more about this when I’ve had time to interview some of the principals involved in the NPFMC ruling. In the meantime,

Don’t buy halibut.

WJ