Due to popular demand, I have finally decided to attempt my first blog in order to keep all those back home up to date with my goings on. While not an eloquent writer, I shall try to make this as interesting as possible; however, many incomplete sentences and even bullet points may be used depending upon the day's motivational level.
I have now been in Sitka, AK for almost a month, and thus have had ample time to start exploring the town, complete training and even spend a week out in the field setting up our ever-important weir (more on that later).Training, while monotonous as times, was very informative and we learned a lot of useful information about surviving in the Alaskan wilderness.My list of certifications now includes boating, defensive driving, First Aid and CPR, seashore survival, bear safety, and rifle qualifications with none other than a .375.(For those of you who don’t know what this means, it’s one of the largest caliber rifles you can get and is used for shooting elephants in Africa.Meaning, 1) it’s heavy, 2) it’s loud, and 3) it hurts like a mother when you shoot it.After practice and qualifications, e.g. hitting 2 our of 3 targets at different distances in less than 10 seconds, my shoulder and arm were black and blue for a week and a half!)One of my favorite sessions was PIG (personal immersion gadget) training in which we were dumped multiple times backwards and forwards upside-down, blindfolded in a cage into a pool and had to successfully find the exit and escape.This was supposed to simulate plane crashes into the water and was supposed to teach us the proper way to crash and remain calm in order to not die, great.
It’s been fun exploring Sitka, as well.With a population of only 8,000-9,000 it’s an easy size to investigate on foot or on bike (generously provided by the Forest Service), with its share of cafes and touristy shops, it’s main industry apart from fishing.It also makes meeting people pretty easy as you’re always seeing the same faces around town.Since I don’t have Internet at the bunkhouse where I live I’ve been spending a lot of time at the coffee shops in town in order to check my email and, what a coincidence, write this blog.Some things I’ve done around town include attending the Sitka Music Festival (a yearly classical music festival), going fishing with my boss’s boss (I caught a Coho), being invited camping on an island 30 minutes away by some locals, joining the weekly French club which meets every Tuesday night, and hosting/attending frequent potlucks.Since we’re surrounded by mountains on one side and ocean on the other, there’s also tons of outdoor activities, such as hiking and kayaking to take advantage of.As one of my bunkmate’s informed me, I am now a local celebrity, as I was on the local news due to my volunteering at the Children’s Fishing Derby last weekend.
Ok, one last thing to mention, Redoubt.This past week was spent out at Redoubt Lake, an hour outside of Sitka, where I will be spending most of my summer.First the cabin: one room, no electricity, no running water = no toilet, no shower.However, we do have a sweet outhouse with no door overlooking the lake.All in all and we had a really good time out there setting up camp and building the weir.Let me clarify, a weir is a big cage that extends underwater from one side a river to the other, blocking the fish’s entrance from the ocean into the lake, where they have returned to spawn (I’ll post pictures when I take them).Now that the weir is set up, we need someone out there everyday counting the fish as they let them through.The numbers we collect go primarily towards determining subsistence and commercial fishing quotas for Alaskan residents.We also take weight and length measurements, cut adipose fins for tagging purposes and take scale samples, which determine fish age and time spent in fresh vs. salt water.Hmmmm… well, I think that about covers it for now.I’ll hopefully be able to update this every 2 weeks or so, so try not to be too impatient.
Also, here’s my address if anyone cares to send me mail, always appreciated!
