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- Aug 21, 2013
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- 3,898
The next year I got each boy a new hatchet. Of course they were both thrilled - the parents not so much . I thought it was my duty as a grandfather to get them started early, right?
Thanks. I have never seen before a hatchet with serrated edge. It reminds me of a conversation with first generation Italian guy who had high regards for serrated sickles (Seen few sickles in my life but non of them had any notches on the blade).
A conveniently-general thread,cool...Just wanted to let everyone know that our combined effort put into research on 18th c. American axes weren't wasted,and shall resume in a couple more months.
Driftwood season is safely behind us now,and i'm in the midst of king salmon fishing.
The Yukon runs of this magnificent creature has been faltering,and is not doing all that hot this year so far(that's how i had an odd moment or two to check in here).
Last year a Brit reality show hosted by Jeremy Wade did an episode on the subject:.I'm in it.I really liked Jeremy,he has a biology degree,and was asking all sorts of incisive,pertinent questions,but this is how he makes his living,and as a result it's a Discovery Channel tripe,in essence,and is mostly worth it for the sake of pretty photography,and Very general information.
All the discussion that we held with Jeremy did not make the cut(the film crew coordinator kept reminding him to keep to the script,and fortunately all of my b.s. got cut out with it,so im only moderately embarrassed by this exposure.
The king salmon is Not extinct,here's a photo from the day before yesterday,my fishing partner Nolan Aloisius and i out on a 24-hour opening:https://imgur.com/FkcKIXi
In a way i almost no longer want to be harvesting these poor struggling beasts,but can't bring myself to quit,and it is my livelyhood,and the Native American culture within which i live and operate in accordance with holds it that as long as we catch these the world Will continue to keep going around...(in ancient tradition the yearly cycle begins when the first king is caught,it is the proof of God's love and benevolence for us humans).
There'll still be a Summer,and then the Fall runs of chum salmon that i will work at,but eventually it Will be falltime,and i'll get back to forging,and maybe we'll see some results,finally...
Thank you for caring about salmon, Jake. I care, too.
I'm the Vice Chair of the council that oversees our local salmon river. Our king salmon are listed as 'threatened' under the ESA. We're making great efforts to keep the run alive. Our sockey run is on a course to go extinct in 20 years. Lots of factors are involved. Off channel habitat for both spawning and rearing is one. Climate change it is a biggy. River temperatures are extremely high near the estuary when the fish are coming in. Predation by both native and invasive species of fish plays a role.
But I think the biggest problem is fish piracy - the taking of salmon on the high seas. You see, there's no reason to fish for salmon on the high seas. They are all coming back to their local rivers where they can be caught without the extra effort. The only reason to catch them at sea is to take them from someone else's river. North American and Asian fishing fleets both steal fish at sea, some legally, some illegally. But it makes no difference. The fish are disappearing.
I remember as a boy seeing my local river turn red from the backs of all the king salmon in summer. Not anymore.
I've caught sockeye 200 river miles from the ocean that were still perfect.
Different water systems are, in a word, different.
Very much so,Scott.I fish 600 miles from salt,and catch many a king,chum,and coho in that beautiful silver-dollar stage.
The deterioration is timed to set in relative to the fish's closeness to the spawning grounds.
How or why,even the superlative user-fees based conservation system practiced in the US cannot tell us yet...
I regret being so short on time this time of year,lots of wonderful comments here i cannot respond to...
Special thanks to Fmont for those cool notes on aquatic entomology,i now think about it as i'm seeing different insects in and around my boat and processing area...Would love to have you come visit and talk about it in some detail...
I defy you to find a pink 200 miles from salt that's worth a hoot. Different water systems are, in a word, different.
Very much so,Scott.I fish 600 miles from salt,and catch many a king,chum,and coho in that beautiful silver-dollar stage.
The deterioration is timed to set in relative to the fish's closeness to the spawning grounds.
How or why,even the superlative user-fees based conservation system practiced in the US cannot tell us yet...
I regret being so short on time this time of year,lots of wonderful comments here i cannot respond to...
Special thanks to Fmont for those cool notes on aquatic entomology,i now think about it as i'm seeing different insects in and around my boat and processing area...Would love to have you come visit and talk about it in some detail...
Learning entomology changed my worldview completely, far more so than any other organismal biology. It's the majority of life in Earth, but completely alien to the majority of people on Earth. If I get the chance I'll come up and we'll sample! Maybe you could show me something about living in the Alaskan way.