2:03pm Kenai, AK

The only thing more finicky than the internet here is the fisherman.

Well guess who was in bed by 9pm last night? Me - that's who! I even made myself a nice dinner and cleaned my room. Then i put in my earplugs and slept like a champ...it was awesome.

We are processing fish everyday now. Today i was in the gear room and i looked out the window and there were little fish organs all over the floor...little hearts and livers - which according to some taste good and are quite nutritious (i'll stick with my centrum thanks.) It doesn't smell...yet...but every now and then a bloody glove liner comes into the laundry room and it's just nasty - if you let them sit too long that is when the funk comes. It must be tough being on "the slime line" (that's where they process the fish - charming don't you think) because they only get hours when there are fish. Sometimes they only get 5-7hrs/day. That will increase when there are more fish but it is so unpredictable.
So we got our first fish the other day. They were from the beach - they are fish and game fish. People with licenses can go out and fish and bring them to us - the numbers are much lower on those fish - because the boats are smaller for one. It was this woman and her little boy dropping off the fish. They have a hopper that dumps the contents of the fish tote down a chute which puts in on a conveyor belt and then gets sorted and weighed. Well there is a different conveyor for the beach fish because it doesn't start on the dock like the fish that come off the boats - people bring the totes in their trucks to us. So there is this little boy, he couldn't have been more than 5yrs old, he had on his mini xtratuff boots (which are really they only boots to wear as an alaskan fisherman - they are pretty awesome...even i have a pair) and he is helping pick up the fish that fall on the ground. The proper way to pick up a fish is through the gill and out the mouth with your finger. Well not so much for shortie over there. He kept trying to wrap his hands around the fish, pick it up and put it back on the belt but since he was so short he had to climb up a step first. Fish slime is slippery enough, forget trying to hold onto the fish for prolonged amounts of time. but he was persistent. He would get up on the step and just as he was about to throw it over it would slip and fall back to the ground. Mom finally helped him but it was really cute to watch him keep trying.
Everyday Dale posts what he calls 'the fish story' on the door to the processing room. That tells them when to check in or when they are going to be called to work. For the past few days we have also had Roe and case up working. I was told the first day we got fish that the real reason that we do any of this is for the roe (fish eggs.) They are worth so much. The rest of the salmon is a byproduct. Now i am sure that this is not entirely true but it does have some merit. And case up is where they glaze the fish in a brine solution and package them to be shipped out.
okay have to go do stuff now.