If you are a "The Deadliest Catch" fan, like I am, you know that fishing is very important in Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has some pretty strict rules. They want to make sure there will always be healthy fish to catch in the ocean. Here are some of the rules for catching salmon.
We spent a few hours in Petersburg, a town devoted to the fishing industry.
If you buy fish at the grocery store, there is a good chance it was processed in Petersburg! We watched boats coming in full of fish and preparing to leave again. We watched folks scrub the boat decks and rebait traps.
They didn’t seem to mind our company.
Since Dude likes to fish, someone suggested we go to the hardware store. We wandered through the fishing tackle aisle and stopped to admire the neon orange, glitter-encrusted, squid-scent slathered fishing lures. Those were meant for BIG fish, not the trout Dude bags in Colorado streams. Mr. Jim and Dude also visited the Fish and Game office and picked up roughly 40 pounds of information on fishing in Alaska. (I think Dude has a plot brewing.)
Dude was fascinated by a neat and clean store called Tonka Seafood. After watching Dude pick up and look over every fish product in the store, the friendly lady behind the counter asked if he wanted to see how they process the fish in the back room. Did he ever!
We walked past heavy vinyl flaps and met three people processing Lingcod that day.
As you can see a Lingcod is roughly the size of an almost fifth grader. James answered Dude’s questions as he worked. First he hauled a huge fish from the bucket, cut it open and cleaned it out. Next, in one quick motion James sliced the fillet off one side, flopped it over and did the same on the other side.
Finally, he picked up the now cartoon-like fish (only the head, tail and spine) and got rid of it. Thanks Tonka Seafood for letting us peek in on your operation.
Do you like smoked salmon? Dude does. In honor of the only fish my avid fisherman will willingly eat I offer you this easy smoked salmon recipe. It’s a Kennedy family favorite.
