It’s the first day of school. Your teacher prints the familiar essay topic across the board: “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” You sigh. What can you possibly find to write about this time?
Seventeen-year-old Morgan Hoffman hasn’t written that kind of paper. For one thing, her teacher (who’s also her mom) would never assign it. For another, the Hoffman family’s No. 1 summer activity looks like anything but a vacation.
Every July, Morgan, her parents and siblings (Jaclyn, 19, and Calvin, 15)—along with her uncle, his children and a crew of six or seven young men—travel from their homes in Anchorage to Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their destination: the Kvichak (kwee-jack) River where, as Morgan says, “We commercial fish.”
Salmon Up
“It’s hard work,” she explains. “I’d never call it a vacation—more like a summer job.” This isn’t flipping burgers or mowing lawns, though. It’s more like the adventure of a lifetime.
“We catch king and Alaskan red (sockeye) salmon to sell to a nearby cannery,” Morgan says. “We’re in Bristol Bay for about a month. We take a plane to a town called Naknek and a boat to the area where we fish.”
Remember your basic salmon facts? If so, you know these shiny beauties swim upriver to spawn. The Kvichak River is huge—several miles across at some points—and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closely manages the salmon traffic.
“Typically, they don’t let you fish until at least two million salmon get up the river,” Morgan says. “That prevents overfishing. And we all want to have salmon to catch in the years ahead.”
Gone Fishing—Alaska Style
Not your father’s fishing trip? In Morgan’s case, it is. Several years ago, her dad purchased his first fishing permit. He and his brother spent their childhood summers fishing the chilly waters that run into Bristol Bay. Now, the two lead their families to do the same.
How does this fishy adventure work? “We have seven set net permits and one drift permit,” Morgan says. “With a set net, you fish off the beach. You can fish off a boat instead, but both ends of the net must be tied to an anchor and stationary [set] in the water.”
These aren’t your average nets. Each can be as long as 50 fathoms. In other words, one stretched-out set net spans the length of a football field!
Fishermen who use a drift net allow their boats to—you guessed it—drift. “One side of your net’s attached to the boat, but the other side has no anchor,” Morgan explains. “You cut the engine and drift through the water, catching salmon as you go.”
Drift nets are huge, too—up to 150 fathoms. That’s as long as three football fields put together!
Work It Out
Question: During this month of fishing, can you describe a typical day?
Answer: It doesn’t exist!
“We can only fish when Fish and Game allows us, and that varies,” Morgan explains. “They make an announcement every afternoon. It’ll sound something like, ‘You can fish tonight from 7 p.m. until 3 a.m.’ So we might have to be out there in the middle of the night.”
Morgan and her family prefer to fish during daylight, of course. But, she says, “Alaskan summer skies don’t get too dark, which makes nighttime fishing easier than you might think.”
Easier is a relative term for the hard-working Hoffmans. “It’s tough,” Morgan admits. “You’re waking up at all hours. Sometimes, we have to pick the fish into buckets on the beach. When that happens, we carry at least 70 pounds of fish through the mud. It’s a great workout, though. I always build up my muscles out there!”
Morgan’s tasks include more than picking nets. She also helps her mom prepare and serve meals for the entire crew. “Back home, Mom buys ingredients and supplies. She has the meals all figured out before we go.”
Before they leave on their summer trip, the family boxes up mountains of food, supplies and extra gear like anchors and nets. They pay a flat fee to ship everything to Bristol Bay by barge.
Cooking for a big crowd is a big job, so Morgan helps her mom as much as she can. “I pull double duty,” she says. “I might be on the beach picking fish and my mom’ll have the food ready. But after the meal, I’ll help her clean up or bake cookies for the guys. Cooking’s not any harder than fishing, but it’s longer. By the time you have everything cleaned up from one meal, it’s time to get ready for the next one!”
Cabin Fever
Cooking? Cleaning? Where does that happen? And what about sleeping? Don’t these weary fishermen need their rest?
“When we first arrive in Bristol Bay, we stay at the cannery because we store our nets, buoys and boats there. We live in their bunkhouses for about a week.”
The cannery lodging is pretty basic. But when the Hoffmans move to their own small cabins 10 miles away, the real fun begins. If a commercial fisherman’s life is no vacation, the rough wooden cabins are no summer resort. Think camping—primitive camping—without electricity or running water. Morgan puts it like this: “If you’re the type of person who has to have a hot shower every day, you won’t make it.”
School of Fish
Long hours. No showers. And the hardest work ever. So where’s the upside of this Alaskan adventure?
According to Morgan—everywhere! She loves to connect with God, and the gorgeous Alaskan wilderness provides a perfect setting. “There’s lots of time to pray. There are no distractions out here: no TV, no media. It’s just you and God.”
The annual expedition includes plenty of family time, too. “My dad fishes with us and we get to talk,” she explains. “I’m up there cooking with my mom a lot, too. Every year is different, but it’s always really good, quality family time.”
No fishing? No problem! The Hoffmans and their crew take advantage of those times when the Fish and Game Department shuts down their work. “On those breaks, we try to enjoy life together,” Morgan says. “We take our four-wheelers down to the beach, we go for rides, play cards or take walks. Sometimes we sit in the cookhouse and play games or just hang around and talk. And I’ll definitely bring my SUSIE magazines along to share with my cousin!”
Morgan doesn’t downplay the other reason her family returns to Bristol Bay every year. “It’s great money. All the adults leave their regular jobs for a month, so we need an income to make it worthwhile.”
Morgan’s dad pays her what other crew members make—a small percentage of the overall earnings. “It’s not a set amount. But it always works out to at least $1,000, and sometimes it’s a lot more.” That’s a great way to build a college savings fund!
Morgan also believes their family fishing adventures have shaped her work ethic and taught her some valuable life skills. “Sometimes when you’re out there and it’s freezing cold, you’re thinking, Why am I here? You have to learn to let your conscious mind outweigh your emotions.”
That’s a great perspective, and a great life lesson. So if you receive an old, familiar assignment on the first day of school this year, remember Morgan’s excellent adventure—and look for the lessons in your own vacation, too.
Be sure to read “Summer School: Life Lessons from Morgan's Excellent Adventure on our website: www.SUSIEMag.com.
Marti Pieper reads, writes and prays from her home in Mount Dora, Fla. She loves excellent adventures of the mission trip kind. Learn more about her at www.martipieper.com.
Net Results
How do the fish get from river to cannery? The fishermen haul their catch into their boat or up onto the beach. Then it’s time to pick the net. Everybody except the boat driver gets into the action, untwisting and pulling each salmon from the net.
“You want to pick every fish as fast as you can,” Morgan says. “Then the net goes back into the water to catch some more.”
After they pick and sort the salmon, the fishermen deliver their catch to a huge boat called a tender. “From catch to delivery at the cannery takes only a few hours at most,” Morgan says. “It’s the healthiest salmon ever!”
One fish, two fish? We’re talking tons—lots and lots of salmon. “We catch between 225,000 and 400,000 pounds of fish in the month we’re there,” Morgan says. “The red salmon weigh between five and six pounds each, but the kings are much larger. One fish might weigh 95 pounds.” That’s one supersized fish sandwich!