One of the things Richard was looking forward to doing here
in Alaska was going down to the community of Chitina. I don’t know why, but it seems that most
people pronounce it Chit-na. Anyway, in
2008 when we were here, we had two other couples traveling with us. Lyle and his family invited the guys to go to
Chitina and go fishing on the Copper River.
It was an adventure like none other and Richard really wanted to do it
again. So we hung around Fairbanks at
Gene’s house waiting for the conditions to be right.
By that I mean a certain number of salmon running up the
river and the water in the river to be a certain level. Well, I’m not sure who counted all those
fish, but the numbers were right, but the water level wasn’t. So, we had to give up and head down to
Anchorage to get lined up for our kids and grandkids to join us here in Alaska
for a week.
But I still want to
tell you about these fishing trips. They
are based on federal and state rules and monitored by Alaska Department of Fish and Game; Division of
Subsistence
What
is subsistence? State and federal law define
subsistence as the 'customary and traditional uses' of wild resources for food,
clothing, fuel, transportation, construction, art, crafts, sharing, and
customary trade. Subsistence uses are central to the customs and traditions of
many cultural groups in Alaska, including Aleut, Athabaskan, Alutiiq,
Euroamerican, Haida, Inupiat, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Yup'ik.
I admit I took that
directly from the Internet. But from
what I’ve learned, all those listed above, plus anyone who has maintained a
permanent residency for one year in Alaska are entitled to the benefits of the subsistence
program. The Copper River is approximately
287 miles long. It is glacier fed and drops an average of about 12 feet per
mile, and drains into a basin that is a total of 24,400 square miles in area. That is the size of West Virginia. The river
has 13 major tributaries and runs at an average of 7 miles per hour.
The rapidly moving water is
loaded with sand and silt. If someone fell
into the river, they would only have a few minutes to be saved because the rushing
water would move them down stream, the silt would collect in their life vests
causing them to sink, and because of the temperature, hypothermia would set in
quickly.
There is popular
contemporary dip net Sockeye Salmon fishery in Chitina, Alaska. The time to catch only lasts two to three
weeks, and is regarded as a subsistence fishery for Alaska residents only. Dip
nets can also be used to scoop crabs in shallow water. The basket is made of
wire or nylon mesh, rather than cloth mesh, since crabs fight, bite, twist and
turn when they are caught.
For subsistence
purposes, an Alaskan can catch 15 salmon per person or 50 (?) per household
with a dip net. While we were in
Fairbanks, Gene and Lyle and a couple of other men when down on the Copper River
and used their dip nets. Within a few of
hours, they had all reached their limits.
They brought them home, cleaned, smoked and canned their catch to eat
during the winter months. A few days
ago, I posted pictures of them canning their catch of the day. I have some smoked salmon in the
refrigerator. It was smoked with
cottonwood. I’ve never had anything
smoked with that wood (usually oak at home) and it is really, really good. I make a dip with cream cheese and onion and
ate it on brown rice and sweet potato crackers.
Yummy!
By this weekend,
I think they will be going to Chitina and setting up the village on the banks
of the Copper River. Then they will
scoop up their catch in a fish wheel. A fish
wheel is a device which operates like a water-powered mill wheel. It has
baskets and paddles attached to a floating dock. The wheel rotates by the
stream current. The baskets on the wheel
capture fish, and then drop them into a holding tank.
They set up a
village (tents, sinks, grills) so they can clean the different types of salmon
as the holding tanks get full. Copper
and Yukon Rivers are the only place the fish wheels are allowed. And they are only allowed for subsistence
use. With a fish wheel, they are allowed
200 per person or 500 per household. If
you have three or four households working this one wheel, you can see why they
need a couple of days and a temporary village set up near the bank.
Just one more
note on this. No one but the Alaskans is
allowed in the boat when they are netting or using the fish wheel. But the boat Gene and Lyle use has seats
attached to the side of the boat where non-residents can sit and watch and take
pictures. These seats hang out over the
COLD, RAPID-MOVING GLACIER FED COPPER RIVER.
Here's some pictures of their trip to the Copper River when we were there.
 |
| Lyle's dog sitting in seat hanging over the edge of boat. |
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| Lyle dipping snow to ice down salmon |
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| Lyle dip netting on Copper River |
In 2008, when
Richard, Jack Dickson and Tom Neal went on this excursion, Richard passed on
riding in the extended seat, but our good ol’ buddy Jack (he fears nothing)
thought it was the greatest ride ever.
He got some great pictures, too.
P.S. We just found out that another one of the
kids will be coming to visit. My stepson
Robert will be visiting between Ryan and Brian’s visit. Since we will be spending 3 weeks with the
others on the Kenai Peninsula, we plan to go north to Denali National Park for
a few days with Robert. I’m glad. I didn’t think we were going to get to visit
the park this trip. Yay!!
 |
Mountain along the Copper River
|
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| Fish Wheel |
Until next time,
Dolores
