how to fillet a fish my style

There are 3 necessities when filleting salmon--beer, a sharp knife, and a fish (obviously). A fillet table is not required, but sure is a nice luxury! I have a preference for cotton gloves when filleting--not to keep my hands clean, but to have a good grip on the fish!



I like to use a thick bladed butchering knife when I fillet salmon. The sharper the blade, the easier it is to make a nice cut. It really makes a world of difference. I keep a little sharpener on hand to use between each fillet.


The first cut that needs to happen is right behind the pectoral fin. I don't cut all the way through the fish, just until I feel the blade hit the spine.

The second cut I make goes all the way down the back of the fish. It's important to keep the tip of your knife right on the spine, and angle the blade slightly downwards to cut as much flesh off the bone as possible.


When I've cut past the belly, beyond the ribs, then I push the knife all the way through the fish, to where I can see the tip coming out the other side. I finish this way clear to the tail.


From here, I go back to the upper section of the fillet where it is still attached to the ribs. Angling the blade slightly downward, I press on the ribs as I slice the meat from the bones.


Once I reach the belly, I slice through the skin and cut the fillet free from the fish.
Then I flip the fish over and repeat the same process on the other side.



I always rinse the fillets off once they're cut to remove any blood that might have gotten on the meat.


Obviously I fall short of Filleting Diva when I leave that much meat on the bone! How embarrassing. But at least in this photo, you can see that it's not necessary to gut any fish if you're going to fillet them the same day they're caught. This king was caught just a few hours before it landed under my knife.


Naturally after all that concentration, you get pretty thirsty. Sipping on a home brew is totally appropriate at this time.

(Photo and shadow credits go to Lisa!)

Sweet Summer Days

The Shumagins have had some beautiful summer weather the last few days. I had to get the camera out today while kite flying with Lisa to show proof that the sun does come out here occasionally.

The sampling schedule has been dark and early lately. One nice thing about it, we are free to enjoy the awesome weather.


Kite flying has become one of our favorite ways to spend the afternoons out here. Sand Point isn't particularly known as a windy place, but there are plenty of opportunities to catch an updraft off the cliffs.


I wish I could share with everyone the incredible scent of the Aleutians in summer. Though treeless, the islands are so lush with vegetation the air is heavy with the peppery smell of pushkie, the sweet smell of wild geranium and brush alder, and the clean smell of the salty ocean.

Fishing

A calm Sand Point harbor at 6 am.

Lisa and I volunteered this year to be the observers on the test fish. Those of you who followed my blog last year might remember my posts about seining with the f/v Lady Joanne, the same boat chartered this year. Every summer there is a pause in the fishery known as the "overlap" that happens the first week of July. During this time, Fish & Game charters a local seiner to fish for 3 days so that the number of immature salmon in the harvest may be observed. This season the numbers were within the ideal range, and the fishery reopened on the 6th of July.


In this picture, Lisa is picking a "giller" out of the web. On the test fish, every immature salmon has to be counted and identified as pink, chum, coho, sockeye or king. There can be times where there are so many immatures stuck by their gills in the seine net, that it looks like a Christmas tree and the gear will jam up. Fortunately, that didn't happen while we were observing!


And here I am doing my best to stay on my feet. I imagine it takes awhile to get really good at running around all the gear on deck. This set of fish was probably around 8,000 pounds, which is pretty average. A large set is 12,000+, and a lot of fun to experience. The energy is incredible.



Though all 3 days were thick with fog, we had surprisingly calm seas for being out between two southeast storms. Getting a chance to be on a boat and do some fishing is a highlight of every summer I've had in Sand Point. It's a chance to connect with the reason I'm employed, and of course it's a whole lot of fun.

I'm Back.

Well, after a long and chilly winter I've returned to the Shumagins.

To catch up, I thought it would be nice to summarize the last year through a little photojournalism:

1. Taking a break from homework in Fairbanks, friends and I skied Moose Mountain at 20 below. Yeah, the tip of my nose tells me to NEVER do that again.

2. My sister's epic 21st birthday was a fantastic reunion of the best people I know.

Portland, Oregon was ROCKED the night of December 27th!

3. Cori and her boyfriend Evan decided to get really serious.

4. The world had to say goodbye to this wonderful man:

5. I made a special visit to Ketchikan during spring break. After saying goodbye to Poppa, I needed to go home.






Southeast nurtured my spirit, and I got to catch up with a couple of very special girls, Penny and Hunny.

6. On August 29th, 2009, I will officially have a brother!




7. After crossing paths at the baseball diamond in Unalaska (credit to Penny!), this handsome geologist from Anchorage has convinced me to date him.

8. I turned 25 on the f/v Tustumina,

my home-away-from-home,

while en route to Sand Point.

Mmmm. . .chocolate cupcakes and Kodiak micro-brew.

Hello half-way to 50!

So, now I'm back in Sand Point for a final summer of sampling. It feels good to have another year of school under my belt, and take a much-needed breather in the fresh Aleutian air. I can't believe it's July already! The weather in June was stormy, but it was the first without snow that I've experienced, and already there are signs of a good berry year. I have high ambitions for salmonberry jam. And lots of ocean swims.


My crew leader and friend Lisa is back with her kayak, and I am back in my wetsuit. Good times!

I hope everyone is doing well, and getting plenty of opportunities to have their own summer fun. I'll be posting often, so check back for more, and I'd love to hear from you!

Summer Wrap up! (Part 2)

It was a beautiful August morning when we arrived in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.

Penny and I had a full day in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. For those of you who don't know, Dutch Harbor is the international port in Alaska's 11th largest city called Unalaska, population 4,000. The military presence during the second World War left a lot of evidence behind--as soon as we pulled in to port we could see bunkers all over the hills behind the Harbor. We had a great day visiting the Aleut museum, meeting a lot of new people, hitching rides as we walked through town, and did a lot of sightseeing. It seemed to me to be a place of great cultural diversity: Aleut, Russian, Filipino and the fleet of often shady-characters. It also seemed to be a very rich community, with fancy city services like a recreation center with a beautiful swimming pool and the best baseball diamond I've seen in the state!


I snapped this picture right as we pulled out of Dutch Harbor. Small boats are rare in the Aleutians, especially sail boats!

Here we are in Cold Bay on our way back up the Peninsula to Homer. The water is so shallow here that the pier had to be built far enough out for the ferry to dock.

It was so wonderful having Penny along to help me say goodbye to the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and gentle summer weather. I can easily say that this summer--more than any other--I have realized how important it is to me to live a life alongside Alaska's coastline and its fisheries. I'm plugging away at my studies in Natural Resource Management and Fisheries and UAF, and hope to graduate and be out of the frozen North and back on the water for good in 3 more semesters. But between now and then, I look forward to next summer in Southwestern Alaska while I study my socks off and stay snug inside when it's 60 below. Yay! So much to look forward to!

Thanks for reading!

Okay! Summer wrap up! (Part 1)

One last swim before leaving town. I was sad to leave Sand Point for many reasons, but especially because the water had finally warmed up to a really nice temperature!

This is sooooo late! But I really wanted to do it no matter that there's snow outside my Fairbanks campus apartment and it's 27 degrees and quickly dropping. What it all comes down to is just sharing some beautiful pictures. My friend and mentor Penny Pedersen managed to leave her husband and 3 boys in Ketchikan for a week and travel with me from Sand Point to Dutch Harbor, and then all the way up to Homer via Alaska State Ferry the end of August after the salmon season was over. The seiners and gill netters were putting their nets in the box, and the school year was quickly approaching. I wanted to tour the SW as far as the ferry would take me as a sort of final hurrah before heading to the frozen, lonely interior for the next 9 months.

This is Roundtop Mountain. It's right behind the community of False Pass, AK, on Unimak Island--the first in the Aleutian Chain. False Pass has a population of 64 people, and is established in the tight narrows between Unimak Island and the end of the Alaska Peninsula. It is a place of powerful connection between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. A place I'm told is always windy and swept with churning tidal currents. I sure experienced both at extreme degrees. The name "False Pass" comes from the fact that only small boats can get through the small gap between island and mainland--small boats like 58ft seiners. The 296ft Tustemina was too big, so after servicing the village we had turn around and continue southwest until we could pass over to the Bering side near Akutan Island.



And here I am with the kite's final avian endeavor. The wind was so strong it broke the string as soon as I had it in the air. It was gone before the Tustemina crew could reprimand me for flying it in the first place. Seeing it swirl in the churn of the propeller wash behind the boat, I felt bad for adding to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch I wrote about earlier this summer. At the same time, I have to confess the romantic side of me thought drowning in the Bering Sea was the only way for such a fantastic kite to end its flying days.

More later!

Salmon Identification

Sockeye salmon are the most prized in the fishing industry for their firm, bright red meat. One of the most common questions I get on the dock from cannery workers themselves is how to tell a male from a female. I always point to their heads--males are easy to tell by their long noses.



There are five species of Pacific salmon. The two I sample are sockeye and chum, but there are also coho, pink, and king salmon. Here I've snapped a photo of a chum and coho. The bottom fish is a coho. If you look closely, you'll notice that the coho has much more silver on it's tail than the chum.
 
Another easy way to check to see what you have on the end of your line is by taking a look at the eye and the gum color:

Above is a chum salmon: Huge pupil (they always look a bit dumb), and white gums.

And here's a coho: Small eye and pupil, and black gums.

So this just touches the surface. I could probably blog the rest of my life about salmon, but I'll leave pink and king a mystery (really I just don't have photos) and move on. . .