❖ BRISTOL BAY FISHING ❖

Bristol Bay gillnet sailboats 
Lining a Naknek River pier, Alaska.
Original photo dated 22 Jun 1947.
from the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

June 1947
Naknek, Alaska

Most of the salmon fishermen flying north for Bristol Bay canneries are veteran gillnetters who have hauled red salmon into double-prowed fishing boats every summer the past decades.
      Some of the fishermen, however, are high-school and college men who are making their first trips to Alaska in hope of earning enough money to put them through school.
      Take 17-year-old Bob Davis, Seattle. He has two more years to complete at West Seattle High and he wants money for school and a new car.
      Ole Olsen, Seattle, is a typical veteran fisherman. Olsen came to Seattle from Norway when he was 19 years old and he's been fishing in AK ever since. He's now 53.
      There also are hundreds of Italian-American fishermen from San Pedro, San Diego, and San Francisco here this year.
      The arrival of so many Italian fishermen posed quite a problem for cannery cooks, for they must serve spaghetti at least two meals out of every three.
      One waiter, a college student from San Francisco just about swallowed his gum when he saw one fisherman pick up a serving platter of spaghetti, turn it upside down on his plate, and then start eating.
      "Don't think our spaghetti supply will last very long at this rate," the waiter muttered as he picked up the platter for a refill.
      The average fisherman will earn from $1,750 to $2,500 this season, depending on how good the catch is. And the men aren't too worried that the salmon run won't be heavy, for this run will mark the return of the heavy 1942 run and few fish were taken that war year.
      The gillnetters, once they start fishing, will work all day Monday and Tuesday, rest during the closed period Wednesday, and work form Thursday morning to Saturday night, Sunday is closed.
      

Bristol Bay Sailing cutter
at Alaska Packers Association Cannery,
Chignik, AK.
From the archives of
the Saltwater People Historical Society©

The men will get their food from scows anchored in Bristol Bay and they'll sleep an hour or so whenever they can. The fishermen don't think much about sleep, though, when the salmon are running.
      "We can sleep all winter," one grizzled Seattle veteran said. "We just lose money when we sleep here."
      Some of the workers here are halibut men who didn't travel in the halibut banks this year because the Fishing Vessel Owners Association and the fishermen failed to agree on the distribution of catch shares.
      "I've got a family to feed, I can't stick around in Seattle all years with no money coming in, " said one fisherman.
Robert L. Twiss. Seattle Times. 22 June 1947