Summer is looking better.

[Dand]

Finally!!!  My bigger boat got fixed after a year being down and chasing electrical issues 'round and 'round. Guess I saved a lot of money on gas last year but spent it all on parts and labor.

Now its working and today I took my oldest out with a net. We only caught 10 sockeye (red) salmon in about 2 1/2 hours of soaking the net - but we got something. Its been a slow start for everybody.  Had hoped for king salmon but reds are fine too.

Now we have 16 pints cooking in the canner and another batch to go tomorrow morning. Maybe Thursday we can fish again.

The fish are much fresher looking this early in the season and before the commercial fishery kicks in, adds injured fish that escape.

I'd been moping for months thinking I might have to find a way to buy a new $8,000 to $10,000 engine.

What a relief to be back in operation with the canner sputtering and a good day on the water with my boy!  2 wks from now I could probably catch 50- 100 salmon in 10-15 minutes but these are fresher and less work at one time.

Now to get my skiff welded......
Welder should be back next week.

[S.E.Ak]

I just lost a good friend today to PSP, Just like the lady from Juneau he was released from Juneau and died the next day. Unlike the lady he got the PSP from dungys. What ever you do clean the crab first,don't just throw the live crabs in the pot. The crab meat does not have PSP but the lungs and such can so when boiling whole you can be killing yourself.

[Dand]

Sure sorry for  your loss. I have friends in Haines and was worried they might have been victims.  I used to work with the crab fishery in Dutch Harbor and Sand Point. At first I thought it was silly when new regs came out requiring summer dungies to be butchered but sadly this proves the health regs right.  I had never taken the warning seriously and must have been lucky. Its hard not to get a little of the guts on the shoulder meat when you clean them.

I knew a guy in Sand Point who died from PSP but he was eating clams in the summer - not the best idea.  Tho I have done it near Dutch Harbor.  Its spooky how the folks seem to recover, get released and then get whacked again.  Do you know what the process is?  Is it a little like botulism where the organism might live in your gut and make more poison?  I think that happens with botulism - not positive.

Well very sorry your summer is looking so grim. I sure hope all coastal folks are careful with all the troubles from Kodiak to Juneau. 

[S.E.Ak]

It was Mike Saunders from Haines a long time commercial fisherman and great person