8:44am Kenai, AK
Two weeks left - we're winding down. There are only a handful of boats left in the water and supposedly we aren't going to get any fish from them anyway. Vince (the owner) is bringing in fish from Prince William Sound and the Yukon. The fishermen have packed their bags and are heading out which means...free food. I've been promised some hamburgers and some bacon which, after a summer with no really good Sunday morning breakfast, sounds awesome. (I can't wait to get home so i can sleep in and make breakfast...and then go get a pedicure cause Lord knows momma needs one.) It's sad to see some of the fishermen go because i discovered that they aren't all bad and even the bad ones have softened and are being more courteous. Who knew?
Last night I went to the Vagabond with Jackie and Kathy and Greg - one of the fisherman. Greg and I got to talking about the oil spill. Even though it happened 19yrs. ago and lots of people have pushed it out of their minds, the effects are still being felt. The year it happened, they payed the drift fisherman not to fish - they were given an average of what they might have made - Greg received $37,000. (He said one year he made $100,000 in the 7-11 days he was out fishing - which isn't common...but still. That is the crazy thing - they only go out fishing a few days out of all of the time they are here. So this summer they aren't getting to go out as much and when they do the fish aren't there like they usually are.) They did however let the set netters fish so of course they got all of the fish. Why they let one fish and not the other i do not know. Greg was saying that he was supposed to get 1.3 million dollars from the settlement, which astounds me. To be honest i never really thought of who would be effected by the oil spill aside from the obvious, but it really hit the fisherman hard. Cook Inlet fishermen were included in the settlement - and that is one of the places our boats fish. They have been battling in court since it happened and i think they are going to keep fighting but apparently the settlement is down 80% while gas prices are up 200%. So people around here are a little bitter. And of course it's upsetting that gas prices are so high but again i never thought of that in relation to this settlement (naturally because i don't stand to gain anything from it) but the whole thing is interesting and eye opening. One of the places i am going (in two weeks when i no longer have to work! :)) is to the Alaska Sealife Center. It is a wildlife rescue center that came about after the oil spill to help save the animals and understand through research what was going on and how to 'maintain the integrity of the marine ecosystem of Alaska.' This ain't your mommas aquarium. It is a large beautiful research center with a huge emphasis on educating the public and I hear it is really interesting. You can go and watch the animals in their natural setting or in a research setting - both are equally cool. I'm pretty pumped about it.
So much learning on so many levels going on inside and outside of the fish plant...