Skip to main content

Herring

This morning a gentle rain glances lightly off the south windows. Steel gray clouds hang limply over Kachemak Bay. The scanty ice flows are backed up against the Spit on this end of the bay signifying a low in the gulf and a counterclockwise turn of moist laden maritime air spilling in from the East. It feels warm. The dog lies contentedly in his doghouse. I head out to Land’s End to catch a basketball game. Still January, it feels like spring may be early. Eagles fly by. The sand looks dark with flakes of coal and sea mud. Soon the floatplanes will be trailered down to the boat harbor preparing for the Herring fishery. There is plenty of room in the small boat section this time of year. That’s a good thing. The floatplane lacks both brakes and reverse gear. The better, maybe braver pilots dock their planes nose first against the dock. They will taxi out in early hours on flat water for a take off out of Coal Bay hopefully in sheltered waters and missing the wake of larger boats on their take-off run.

The Herring fishery proves a lucrative endeavor. Fortunes can still be made with a good catch and the sale of the roe to Japan. The challenge demands aircraft spotters with the moxie to circle low over the schools of fish avoiding many other aircraft doing the same thing. The split from a successful skipper encourages the gamble, a gamble with life. Secret codes and sophisticated radio equipment direct the skippers below to the biggest and closest catch. Some pilots use spotters, some fly alone. Nights are spent nose into the fishing boats in the lee of Nordyke Island in Kamishak Bay or some such place hoping the weather will hold for the opening. Such is life on the lower Cook Inlet.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Utopia

The Devil promises a utopia of worry-free egalitarianism beckoning you to an Orwellian hell of despondency. Its a matter of giving or taking. Work for your family and community supporting the common good, or take from the wealth of those who produce and promise benefits to those who do not and those destroyed by the theft of their own creation.

Election 2024

The November 2024 election presents a significant challenge, transcending the traditional Democrat versus Republican divide. This election will determine the future of the American Republic, Western civilization, and potentially the survival of the human species. Plato suggested that democracies tend to devolve into oligarchies, and we are witnessing that transformation before our eyes. Three major trends in the U.S. threaten to replace our Constitution and representative government with a totalitarian, internationalist, socialistic oligarchy. First, seventy years of Soviet subversion, the Vietnam War, and generations of youth who were taught to reject American institutions have undermined U.S. leadership. Now, Chinese espionage, bribery, and infiltration further contribute to the erosion of America’s traditions of citizenship, enterprise, and prosperity. Second, NGOs in Washington, an entrenched bureaucracy, and organizations like the Trilateral Commission prioritize internation...

Inflation

Many retail investors buy individual stocks with growing confidence in a narket that has a long run. Many fail to appreciate the way the market reflects inflation. Company revenue consists of inflated number,s as does cost and profit, thus the market reflects true inflation which must now be near 100%.