Favorites from the last few years

I've been developing a new page on my website titled "alaska photo galleries" and a section includes some flash galleries which include 100 favorites of 2008. In addition, there are favorites form previous years as well. Looking back on a year's worth of travels and images provokes lots of memories and grand sights from across Alaska's landscape.

Part #6: Copper River salmon - fish earbones

Erin Nicholsan with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game removes the earbone from a Sockeye salmon caught in the Copper River. The earbones are marked when the fish are fry at the Gulkana hatchery, and can be identified as adults.

This post is part of the photo essay I'm working on about the hatchery enhanced Sockeye salmon of the Copper river.

There is an extensive story to be told of the difficulties in raising Sockeye salmon in a hatchery environment. This is in part due the Sockeye's susceptibility to a virus which can spread quickly and deliver extensive mortality. The Gulkana hatchery has taken measures to deal with this issue, and have had amazing success. In order to judge long term survivorship of hatchery fish, they need to be marked in some fashion. This used to be done with a variety of tags placed on a small percentage of fish. More recently however, a new type of marking is done at hatcheries which effects the earbone of each fish, thereby marking 100% of the fish, and in a sense, branding them. The Gulkana hatchery uses a salt based water solution to mark their fish, which enables the fish that are caught throughout the commercial and personal use fisheries to be identified. In order to do this, the earbone is removed from the fish, dried out, then looked at under an electron microscope (more on that in another post). After I returned from the river with my Salmon, an ADF&G technician removed the earbones from all my fish and sent them off for testing. The percentage of Gulkana hatchery red salmon caught annually varies, and in a later post, I'll address some of those numbers.

Part #5: Personal Use Fishery - Copper River Sockeye Salmon

Dipnet fishing in the Copper River Canyon, Alaska.
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm 2.8L, 1/400 sec @ f9.0, ISO 400

This is the fifth part of series I'm documenting on the Copper River red salmon, read the others here.

For many Alaskans, the personal use dipnet fishery of the Copper River is an important event. Each household is allowed to catch 30 salmon per season for their personal consumption. It begins in June and is usually wrapped up by August. For those not familiar with the procedure here is the scoop: A big net on the end of a 12 foot pole is lowered from the shore (some use boats) into the silty river water, preferably in an eddy which the fish favor for swimming up river (I might add that there is no lack of advice out there for proper technique and location. Many have their tried and true "spots" which faithfully deliver year after year). When the wiggle or bump is felt in the net, you haul it out. The fish is then bopped on the head, or live bled in the gills, and put on a stringer. This year my interests were two-fold: One, to catch my fish and two, to document the procedure. Its a challenge to do both and I was certainly focused on getting my fish as a first priority.

I chartered a boat ride that dropped me off down river in the canyon. The weather was fantastic (which is often not the case by the way). Perched on a small island rock adjacent to the canyon wall, I dropped in the net and bingo, had a beautiful shiny salmon in a few minutes. In just a few hours, I had my limit of fish but zero pictures. The disadvantage of my beautiful location was that no other fishermen were in sight to photograph. So, I did what photographers often do when faced with this dilemma: self portrait, self timer, and experiment. I forgot my intervolometer in the car (fancy programmable cable release) so I was left with pushing the shutter button and getting into position in a 10 second time period, and repeating this frequently. I put my camera on a tiny tripod, about 6 inches off the ground and did the best I could with composition. The results were acceptable, although I really wish I could have framed the scene from behind the camera! All in all, it was an exhilarating experience in outrageously beautiful country. I now have a freezer full of red salmon that will last until this time next year, and the process will happen again.

Part four: - Sonar counts: Copper River Sockeye

Miles lake sonar station located along the Copper River near the historic Million Dollar Bridge. Submersed sonar transmits visual data to computer terminals enabling technicians to count fish passing by.

The commercial fisheries management procedure is a complicated one. Mainly because there are so many factors that can influence the health of a salmon run in any given year. Remember, there are at least 156 different stocks of red salmon that run up the Copper River, branching off here and there at the respective waters of their youth. They return five years after birth, so climatic and other factors for that year must be considered in the current year of their return. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game wants to see a certain amount of the fish make it past the fisherman in order to sustain the natural stocks. To prevent too many fish from being caught, the season openings are based on the amount of fish that have passed on up the river. How is this known? Through a fancy sonar counting system set up a short ways up the Copper River. Sophisticated sonar lets one actually see the fish swimming up the river.

Salmon appear as white shapes swimming by the sonar field.

ADF&G staff record a 10 minute digital movie file generated by the sonar and then count the fish that have passed by in that time period (one can count the fish with live sonar display on computer screens as well, but a digital file enables speed adjustment to aid in counting accuracy).

ADF&G technician counts salmon passing by the sonar field for a ten minute period every hour.

Based on that, a fish-per-hour count is generated, and total daily “escapement” numbers are posted on the ADFG Miles Lake sonar counts page. The system has been through statistical rigors and seems to satisfy the biometricians. For the dip netters waiting for these fish to reach the Chitina dip netting area, it takes approximately 10 to 14 days from the Miles Lake sonar station.

Part 3: Gill net fishing - Copper River Basin Sockeye

Bow picker Gill net fishing on the Copper River Delta

As part of an ongoing assignment (see part one and part two) covering the copper river red salmon, I traveled to Cordova, Alaska to join a commercial fishermen during the current, once a week 12 hour period for the Copper River gillnet fishery.

The great Copper River pours into the Gulf of Alaska in southcentral Alaska, depositing its turbid waters full of glacial silt and sand creating an array of shallow sand bars and and shoals. The fishermen of the Delta use bow-picker jet boats by majority, which enables fishing in these shallow waters. A 900 foot net is released into the water suspended above by small floats and a lead line below helps the net hang down in the current. The net (and boat) drift along with the current for about an hour or so, before a large wheel reels in the net along with the catch. The fish are caught in the net by the gills.

Hauling in the net

My special thanks to the generosity of commercial fisherman Bill Webber for letting a total stranger join him. Bill has more than 40 years experience fishing the Copper River Delta, and currently operates an innovative and progressive business where he processes his fish at sea and sells direct to restaurants in the lower 48. (Gulkana Seafoods Direct)

Sockeye salmon caught in the gillnet

This takes a blend of skills, which Bill implements well. The “processed at sea” attribute is one more effort to increase the quality of an already amazing product. Bill takes extensive care in handling the fish in order that they are not inadvertently bruised. In addition, they are live bled quickly, headed and gutted, then pressure bled, and quickly hand packed with ice and put in the hold. This practice is more common in the troll fishing industry, but he is introducing it to the gill net fishery. The fish are generally sent out the following day on Alaska Airlines jets.

Salmon coming over the bowroller.

Packing the hold with processed fish.

His boat named the “Gulkana” (one of the headwater rivers of the Copper) is fitted with satellite phone/internet and he can literally take orders from restaurants as the catch of the day unfolds! Which is a pretty slick operation.

Mixed in with the run of red salmon are the king salmon, and we netted a very nice one weighing in about 50 pounds. In case you are wondering, that single fish fetches about $700 on the (direct, processed at sea) restaurant market!

50 pound King salmon nets $700 on the processed at sea direct market.

Conditions were not optimal for photography, very flat light, gray sky and gray water. And the density of the fishing fleet (500 plus boats) has dispersed to other parts of Prince William Sound in part due to the economics of a low salmon run, reduced opening periods and the cost of fuel. It was a great experience and I captured a few o.k. photos.

Interestingly, the perspective I like the most was from the last set of the day, just before closing, when an increased sense of "I need to work this differently" prompted the idea of hanging off the bowroller for a look back as the fish came on board the boat. Of course, having another vessel to shoot from would have been optimal, but it was not available. Bill got a rope which we rigged up to enable me to lean back against it for support and shoot a few frames.


Hanging off the bowroller for a different perspective

Part #2: Smolt - Copper River Basin Sockeye

Heading for the Ocean

Sockeye salmon smolt head for the salt water after feeding and growing in Summit lake for one year.

This is part two of a lengthy photo series I'll be doing through the summer and autumn, focusing on the Gulkana hatchery and its role in enhancing the Copper river Sockeye salmon that migrate its waters. Click here for part one.

The life span of a Sockeye salmon is four to five years. Eggs are laid in fresh water streams/lakes in late summer/autumn where they incubate over the winter and hatch in the spring. The little fry spend a year feeding and growing in the lakes and as soon as the ice melts in late spring the one year old salmon (smolt) head for the salt water. This outmigration process takes place in the darker hours of the night over the course of a few weeks/months, depending on the lake (usually ending around the fourth of July says hatchery manager Gary Martinek). Why in dark hours? Well, there are a lot of creatures hungry for these shiny little fish. Predators such as lake trout, terns and gulls take a heavy toll on the fish.

About the only way to track fry survivorship in the lake is to approximate how many make it out as smolt. The Hatchery sets up a trap at the mouth of the lake to do just that, and through a measurement regime calculates the total number of out-migrating smolt.

These little fish vary in color when viewed from the top, but if you get a glance at their sides, they are a flash of silver! It's amazing that a 3 to 4 inch fish can make it all the way down the river to the Pacific Ocean, but nature is loaded with mysteries, and the migrating salmon is one of the big ones. For those that reach the salty waters, they will feed for three or four years, and return again to the waters of their youth to spawn their successors. The next few chapters of this story will focus on the consumers of these fish, like me and my friends, fishermen, and others who tap into this great food source.

Smolt caught in the outmigration nets are counted and released to continue their way down the Gulkana river, to the Copper river, out into the Pacific Ocean.

Notes on the Underwater Photo:

First of all, thanks to the Gulkana Hatchery guys for keeping some of the smolt in a pen for me to work with.

Yours truly using a wireless transmitter and underwater housing to photograph the smolt.

I used an EWA marine underwater housing, which is cumbersome but does the job of keeping the camera dry. Attached to the top of the camera inside the housing is a wireless reciever (Pocket Wizard) that enables me to trigger the shutter remotely from a hand held transmitter. Since the little salmon fry are pretty skittish, you can't have your hands in the water or they get freaked out. I set the camera on AV priority--the light was changing quite a bit with sun and clouds--and pre focused the lens to the closest focus distance. From there it is experimentation. I increased the depth of field in subsequent photos, but I like the positioning of the fish in this frame the best.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm 2.8L, Ewa-marine underwater housing, 1/2000 sec @f4.5, ISO 1000.

Part #1: Fry drop - Copper River Basin Sockeye

Pilot Doug Glenn drops a load of salmon fry into Crosswinds lake from his crop duster airplane. About 10 million fry in total get dumped in the lake over a two day period. Mount Drum, of the Wrangell mountains in the distance.

My first encounter with the Copper River and fish was in 1982 when my uncle pulled a 65 pound King Salmon from its dirty gray waters. Since then, I've been utilizing the personal use fishery, dip netting red salmon (sockeye) nearly every year since. The river is fed with 156 distinct "stocks" of red salmon, says Gary Martinek the hatchery manager. One of these significant stocks is the Gulkana Hatchery, located near the mouth of Summit lake. In my eyes, its an untold success story, and few people seem to realize that this small hatchery, on average, contributes up to 60% of the red salmon catch throughout the basin. For this reason, I decided to take on a personal assignment documenting the hatchery, fish, and users of this wonderful Alaskan resource. It will likely be picked up by a magazine as a feature story.

Recently, that is late May, I went to the hatchery to photograph the transport of 10 million little salmon fry (they are about one inch long), which were loaded into a crop duster airplane and dropped into a nearby, non-road accessible lake. Through a little experimentation, the optimal drop distance seems to be about 200 feet. The process runs pretty smooth by observation, but they have spent many years perfecting it. Throughout the summer, I'll be documenting different phases of this subject, so check back for more images.

Hatchery employees gather the fry from the raceways

Crop duster ready for loading, the plane takes off down the Richardson highway.

Loading the tank with fry.

Salmon fry visible in the little window from the cockpit of the airplane

Crop duster plane tank filled with 450 gallons of water/fry