Valerie Seal treated herself to a salmon fishing outing on her day off, April 16, which might not seem like headline news at first. One twist in this tale is that Seal”s day job is working as the deckhand on the fishing boat the Telestar. Another is she”s the only woman in a business where the word “fishermen” still works for almost everybody.
The real big news is that people are actually catching salmon off Fort Bragg for the first time since 2007. Just outside the harbor, Seal and friend John Kirk caught three salmon on their fishing trip, including a 20-pounder. This early arrival of some of the glorious pink fish is seen by Seal and others as a good harbinger for summer, when salmon and the tourists who love them are expected to arrive in much larger numbers.
“I believe we are going to have a strong season. The hotels, restaurants, all the businesses here in Fort Bragg, really need it,” Seal said.
The tale of the return of king salmon fishing to a town which once lived off the annual returns was put in motion when the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) last week made Fort Bragg the center of salmon fishing in California for 2010.
Although fishing is greatly limited compared to years past, this is among the best news for local salmon fishermen in the 21st century. Fishing is allowed now but the dates and areas open to fishing await final approval by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Fish and Game. Seasons could also be altered if actual numbers turn out not to match the early returns and PFMC projections.
The California Fish and Game Commission, which oversees the Department of Fish and Game and has authority over all California waters, was set to give its approval on Wednesday. Usually, the commission has rubber-stamped the PFMC”s plan.
“We have someone on the PFMC and we get our input in that way,” said Harry Morse, a spokesman for DFG. “Historically, it has been passing conforming regulations.”
He pointed out that the commission isn”t bound by the federally-chartered PFMC or the DFG.
“They can change some of the boundaries. They can change some of the dates, they are independent,” Morse said.
Normally, the biggest job of the Fish and Game Commission is to create river fishing regulations for salmon. The Sacramento Bee reported on Tuesday that seasons will likely be approved this week for troubled rivers like the American, Sacramento and Feather.
“It wasn”t until after 6 p.m. on Thursday [April 15] that the PFMC decided to have a salmon season this year,” Morse said. “We have been really scrambling to get all the information ready for Wednesday”s commission meeting.”
Fishermen with conflicting ideas confronted the PFMC at last week”s meeting. Some wanted a return to the longer seasons common before the fish stopped returning to the Klamath River in the early 2000s and to the Sacramento River three years ago. Other fishermen were angry at the idea of opening a season this year, wanting the PFMC to hold off until salmon populations recover enough to actually support a commercial industry.
“I, along with many commercial and party boat captains and associations, have voiced their opinion that the models and science don”t take into account the lack of juveniles making it back to sea. Many feel that the ocean abundance numbers are overly optimistic and many don”t support the PFMC”s decision,” stated a post produced by party boat captain Mike Aughhney on the USA Fishing website and blog. The site has detailed reports about fishing all along the California coast.
Noyo Harbor
Fort Bragg is also the center of limited commercial fishing seasons this year, with strict quotas to be enforced.
Although crab, whales and jumbo squid have kept Noyo Harbor”s recreational fishing party boats from going under, none of those businesses compares in visitor interest to the mighty salmon, fishermen report.
With salmon fishing open for the first time in years, fishing boats have been busy, despite the fact that it”s always tough to catch salmon in April. Two years ago, salmon season was open briefly but only one fish was reported caught to the newspaper.
That one was landed on the boat of Captain Tim Gillespie, whose boat the Sea Hawk launches next to the Telestar.
Now, Gillespie is cautiously optimistic. He reports that while the small early catch is promising, waters are much warmer than usual this year. If the warm water spreads closer to shore, that could spoil the big summer for recreational fishermen, he said.
“They will go where the colder water is,” Gillespie said. Gillespie also said he won”t celebrate until state and federal approval is final.
But Gillespie was found in the north harbor, telling his fish stories. Across the Noyo in the south harbor, the long, sleepy marina has stirred to life with fishermen fiddling, tuning and exaggerating like it was the old days.
In a harbor with more than its share of characters, few can upstage Seal.
The only woman deckhand in the harbor during her entire six years with Randy Thornton”s Telestar, she runs the boat for 22 salmon fishermen, working all the poles, cranking up the music and bringing boundless fun to any problem that may come up at sea.
“We say yeah!” a lot on our boat,” she said, demonstrating.
“I love my job, I get paid to fish. Most people have to call in sick to go fishing, I just get up and go to work,” Seal said.
She doesn”t drink coffee, which is probably for the best, with her obvious intensity, energy and thrill for life. She exudes fun and smiles but is also clearly as strong and tough as nice. Not surprisingly, she reports she has never been mistreated on her boat, although sometimes fishermen do need to have their path blocked to the beer cooler, something Seal is definitely capable of.
Seal, 36, grew up on the Oregon Coast and has always loved fishing but never imagined she could have so much fun as a deckhand.
“Captain Randy Thornton taught me everything I know. It”s been great. I get up early for work and we are back in by noon,” she said.
Her deft fish cleaning and filleting in her trademark deep brown tank top, jeans and boots often draws fans.
When Seal cleaned her 20-pound salmon last week, she found two baby jumbo squid in its belly.
“When I catch a fish, I can”t wait to see what it has been eating, I was surprised to see that,” she said.
Squid fishery
While some question whether a modern salmon industry is economically viable or environmentally sustainable, the brand new jumbo squid fishing industry off Fort Bragg provides only economic benefit. Jumbo squid are much smaller than the deep dwelling giant squid despite numerous erroneous media reports which mix up the two critters.
Jumbo squid are an invasive species, arriving unexpectedly off local shores, due to the mysterious and worrisome spreading of an oxygen free zone in the ocean. They devour everything in their path, from bottom fish species recovering from overfishing to baby salmon that managed to escape the overdeveloped and toxic environment of the California heartland.
Adult salmon and jumbo squid are both ferocious and talented predators, not likely to fall victim to one another.
Gillespie said the sport is thrilling but has yet to catch on with visitors.
Seal says one thrill of catching a squid is that its fellow squids begin attacking the creature once it”s hooked, dismembering and eating it on the way up. She recently caught two jumbo squid on the same hook.
Scientists say the arrival of the squid, bad news for the overall ecosystem, will be good news for three large predators, great white sharks, orcas and sperm whales.
At first, it was thought the local waters were too cold for squid to reproduce. But Seal isn”t the only one to find evidence of babies. Although the jumbo squid is among the fastest growing creatures on Earth, reaching lengths up to 8 feet in just two years, the babies will provide food to a wide variety of creatures.
Seal, like many locals, has never seen a great white shark during her many trips to sea, although the monsters are common locally and occasionally injure or kill an ocean user. She has seen orcas and lots of dolphins, porpoises and of course, gray and humpback whales.
Her favorite moment on the water was when a gray whale put on a show for the boat in the mouth of Noyo Harbor, leaping full out of the water and splashing back down seven times.
“It was right by the red buoy. I don”t think I”ve ever yelled that much,” she said.
