Adventures in Smelting

Consistently cold temperatures, sometimes down in the -20's, have been a regular part of our winter here on the Alaska Peninsula. While we do often get some reprieve, with temperatures jumping all the way up into the 30's occasionally, the cold has been regular enough to cause a deep freeze to occur on our lakes and rivers in the area. This has been VERY exciting to everyone in our village because smelting (going out and ice fishing for tiny smelt fish) is a hugely popular activity. The last few years have been poor for smelting, so the successes of this year have been much to celebrate in our tiny corner of the state. 

We have been invited out to join local families for smelting a few times, but I had been nervous about the thickness of the ice. However, last week, we were informed that the ice was 4+ feet thick on the entire road out to the smelting grounds. I figured that 4+ feet of ice was more than enough to support us out into the wilderness. 

On Friday, Melissa (the other teacher) and I decided that smelting seemed like the perfect "girls night out" activity. We dumped the husbands at home and took off on the ice road, traversing frozen lakes and tundra, to the area where other locals would be fishing. The lake where the actual smelting takes place is a little over halfway to Ugashik, which is a neighboring village that boasts only about 5 regular residents. Although you can glimpse a bit of the village from the smelting spot, it still feels very remote. 

The actual act of catching the fish was a new experience for me. Holes were put into the ice using an auger, which is typical of all ice fishing, but the poles/catching the fish seemed a bit foreign to me. For starters, you use the tine of a fork and attach it to a string. This string is then tied to a piece of wood. There is no bait involved in catching smelt, instead you just lower your fork into the water and the smelt will try to bite it. As soon as you feel a bite, you drag the line up quickly and the fish comes with it. This whole process tends to be pretty quick. Many people in our community have been catching 80-100 fish in the span of only a couple of hours. It seems that you're barely dipping your line in the water before you are having to quickly drag it back out. 

Melissa and I's success the first day led us to drag the husbands out with us the following day. The four of us drove back out and were pleasantly surprised to find no less than fifteen others from our village and Ugashik out there fishing already. Our village tends to be fairly insular, so getting the opportunity to get out and do something with such a large group was a huge deal. I was also excited to meet some of the residents of Ugashik because the tiny, nearly abandoned village is pretty fascinating to me. One of the residents even had a mammoth ivory carving that he brought out to show us. It was pretty incredible! 

We caught quite a few fish over the course of the weekend, and the four (Melissa, Ben, Cody, and I) of us had a fish fry with our daily catch on Saturday night. There is no doubt in my mind that we will go back out, if given another chance. Smelting was just another fun, new experience to add to our list of adventures out here in the bush. 

Your turn...Have you ever gone smelting or ice fishing? 

Currently listening to...Blue Ridge Mountain - Fleet Foxes

Subsistence Fishing

Fishing has become an integral part of our lives here in the bush. Fishing, particularly subsistence fishing, is a huge part of village life. Stores are extremely expensive, if they exist at all, so many families still depend on hunting, fishing, and gathering to supplement their diets. Aside from the availability issues, it's also a huge part of their cultural society.

As a life-long vegetarian I knew that my options for eating fresh fruits and veggies would be limited, while fishing would likely be a part of our routine, and that my diet would potentially have to shift. I had come to terms with this ahead of time and decided to fully embrace becoming pescatarian (I'm only eating seafood that we catch, and will still be eating vegetarian/vegan outside of the village). I came to the bush with the intention of embracing the culture and lifestyles of my new community, which includes subsistence activities.

Cody and I have been trying to learn about the culture of subsistence living as much as we can.  Because of that, we've been homemaking more food, picking berries, and fishing 1-2 times per week. Fishing here is much different than fishing back home.  We don't go out with a tackle box and poles. There are no slow, lazy trips around a calm lake. 

Instead, we use a fishing net that is attached to a pulley system on the beach.  At low tide, the net gets pulled out. Then, at high tide you head back down to the beach. The net is lined with bobbers, which jump around in the water as soon as a fish hits the net.  As fish hit the net we reel it in and pick them out of it. As the fish get picked from the net they are then immediately filleted. Sue and Al, our school cook and his wife, have graciously taken us under their wing and been teaching us the right way to catch, fillet, and prepare the fish. We've typically been getting 10-15 fish a day when we go out, and then we take them home to vacuum seal and freeze them.  However, Sue and Al have also been showing us how to smoke and can the fish too.

So far, this has been a great way for us to supplement our giant food costs.  All of our groceries have to be shipped in or purchased at our store (to give an idea - milk is $20/gallon and cookies are $10/package, while fresh options don't even exist) and having something we can get for free has been helpful. We've been enjoying learning different ways to prepare salmon and trout, which are the two kinds of fish we've been catching.

Subsistence fishing is just another adventure in our lives out here in bush Alaska. We came into this experience with the intention of trying new things and generally being "yes" people, and so far I think we've been doing a pretty good job of fulfilling that intention. 

Your turn...What are some new things you've said "yes" to lately? 

Currently listening to... Fire at the Pageant - The Felice Brothers

Do Vegetarians Go Fishing?

Today's post is about my adventures fishing in Alaska.  Before I start though, I thought I should address that fact that I AM a vegetarian.  Let's rewind…my veggie beliefs began at an early age.  I began refusing meat when my parents first tried giving it to me in my toddler years.  They were supportive of the no-meat attitude I had somehow developed by the age of two.  So, I just never ate meat and I was always actively against it.  As I grew older I was mainly against factory farming and big business controlling our food (I hate Monsanto too but that's a conversation for another day). I marched in parades to support vegetarian/vegan lifestyles, I handed out pamphlets, and generally supported my fellow veg-lovers and animals!

Activism, 2006. 

Then, I moved to Alaska in 2010 and saw the lack of resources.  It was impossible for me to be a vegetarian living in the Bush.  There was no milk of any kind (powdered-only), no vegetables, no fruit, and generally not a whole lot to choose from.  It took up 4-6 weeks for mail to arrive so ordering fresh food online wasn't even an option.  If food wasn't at the general store (and it almost never was), I didn't eat it.  So, while living in the Bush I ate fish, but only fish that I, or another villager, caught.  I chose to only eat locally caught fish by people that I knew because it allowed me to know who/what/when/where and that the person respected the animal.

Catching Dinner, 2010. 

So, while I am still not a meat-eater, my views have evolved after living in such a remote area of the world.  I learned that my lifestyle is actually impossible in some corners of the world (at least I found no other alternative).  In Juneau the vegetarian options are readily available (thankfully).  But, I still believe that Alaskans as a whole are a subsistence people who rely on hunting, fishing, and trapping to sustain themselves throughout the year.  They respect animals, they recognize that they are not the top of the food chain, and they hunt for survival.  This is simply their way of life and I respect them so much for this.

The Dolly that I caught under JD Bridge. 

Do vegetarians go fishing? This one did! I decided that I would try it out as long as we wasted none of the meat…and that is exactly what we did.  Cody plans to catch enough fish and other game to sustain himself this winter without store bought meat.  If I can contribute to the decline of factory farming through this route than I have decided that I will try it.  So, here are some pictures of my fishing adventures (as a vegetarian).  Enjoy:)

Fish Creek. 

Juneau-Douglas Bridge. 

Questions:
Are you a vegetarian? Why or why not? 
What choice would you have made in my position?
Do you enjoy fishing, hunting, trapping, or gathering?