“It’s quite a shock when you come off of the ocean to society … you spend 3 months or so where you’re just on a boat in these amazing places and we don’t have a satellite radio or anything. We have no idea what’s going on. We’re just blissfully unaware of the rest of the world … Everything is very simple and purpose driven …and then you come back to all this and it’s kinda hard to figure out where you fit in sometimes”
Meet Joel and Tele,
Captains of the Nerka- A forty-three foot boat that spends its summers trolling up and down the coastline of southeast Alaska, searching for Aslan’s tasty coho salmon. Joel has been a part time resident of the Nerka since he was just two weeks old. Both Joel and Tele were raised in fisher families on the docks of Sitka, Alaska — learning the ropes of salmon fishing at a very young age.
The Nerka Below Mt. Fairweather in Alaska
The couple joined forces in 2004 and began fishing on the Nerka together just two years later. After nearly two decades of operation as a multi-generational family business, Nerka Sea Frozen Salmon was transferred to the hands of Joel and Tele in 2015. Nerka now delivers thousands of pounds of salmon to Aslan each year, helping us create our tasty salmon cakes and salmon specials.
Tele Lifting a Stunned Salmon into the Nerka
“Every fish [we catch] comes aboard one at a time, hook and line caught” explains Tele. “We put them down in the blast freezer at -40 within an hour of them leaving the ocean. Then when you guys get them, they’ll still taste like they just came out of the ocean.”
After catching, cleaning, and prepping the fish, Tele bundles up in her toughest outer layers to brave the 40 degrees below 0 freezing temperatures inside the fish hold. While in the hold, she glazes each individual fish one at a time by hand dipping them in a salt water bath. She does this twice. “That’s what seals in the freshness and keeps them from getting freezer burned” explains Tele.
Tele Working Down in the Hold
The Fish Hold: Stocked and Ready to Distribute
Tele and Joel are careful to distinguish the difference between ‘frozen at sea’ and ‘previously frozen’. They explain how frozen at sea involves much more care and is more of an investment. “It involves the equipment like the refrigeration system, It involves the time and the care into each fish, and it’s a financial investment” explains Tele.
“‘Frozen at sea’ is not like ‘previously frozen’, where something sits on a boat 5 days, gets delivered, and then gets frozen on the processing line” adds Joel. “Frozen at sea is gonna be that fish that was frozen right as it came on the boat, so it’s gonna be a much higher quality product and have a much longer shelf life.”
“We’re not selling to the cannery to the guy who’s got the hoist…we don’t have a hoist where we unload.” Joel describes the unloading process that goes into each 10,000 lb. trip as somewhat of a production line. He explains how each fish is plucked carefully from the hold by Tele, transferred to a crew-members hands on the boat, then to a crew-members hands on the dock, finally to Joel- who then packs the fish away one at a time into thousand pound totes. “We handle every fish so many times it’s kind of ridiculous” laughs Joel.
Ready for Delivery!
Joel and Tele will complete this trip at least two to three more times in a season. These seasons are long and grueling. “We’ll fish 19-20 hours a day in July a lot of times and things start getting weird”, laughs Joel. “Yeah, our garbage can is just like solid granola bar, string cheese, and candy bar wrappers” adds Tele, “it’s not a particularly healthy time”. The couple describes these days as sleep deprived and often even comical- creating for good stories. “We are both writers” says Tele, “there’s good stories that come out of that”.
The couple describes the transition from fishing season to off season as a ‘shift time’. “It’s quite a shock when you come off of the ocean to society,” explains Joel, “and almost everyone we know as a fisherman goes through the same thing. We talk a lot and check in because it’s very surreal. You spend 3 months or so where you’re just on a boat in these amazing places and we don’t have a satellite radio or anything. We have no idea what’s going on. We’re just blissfully unaware of the rest of the world … Everything is very simple and purpose driven … and then you come back to all this and it’s kinda hard to figure out where you fit in sometimes”
Joel and Tele spend their off season at their home base in Bellingham, selling their summer catch, working on the boat, writing poetry and short stories, and advocating for sustainable fishing practices. “Joel and I are proud to participate in a sustainable fishery that’s managed for conservation”, states Tele. “We also recognize that fisheries management is only one aspect of sustainability. Preserving & restoring salmon habitat is an equally necessary part of ensuring future salmon”.
Joel Posing with His Catch
“The coho we harvest in Southeast Alaska are healthy and abundant because of their natal streams in the Tongass National Forest” states Tele. “Over 16 million acres, the Tongass is the largest remaining temperate rainforest in the world. We know it as America’s Salmon Forest – home to so many of the watersheds where these coho return to spawn &, after laying their eggs for the next generation of salmon, decay to give additional life nourishing this amazing, healthy ecosystem & all of the land/sea/airborne creatures dependent on it.”
The Tongass is currently being protected by the Roadless Rule, a federal rule that protects some of the wild lands in Alaska’s national forest system from road-building, mass resource extraction, and timber harvest. The State of Alaska is currently trying to roll back this rule and exempt the Tongass from the Roadless Rule. Exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule would endanger the last remaining areas of intact old growth forest and key watersheds that currently support our communities, cultures, and economy (Sitka Conservation Society).
Joel and Tele will be speaking at a Sierra Club event at the Seattle REI on Saturday, November 23rd, 1:00pm-3:00 pm, encouraging folks to submit public comments in defense of the Tongass & the Roadless Rule. As partners with Nerka, Aslan would like to encourage you to do the same.The US Forest Service is currently accepting public comments now through December 17th. To read more information regarding the Roadless Rule or to submit your comment, checkout this link from the Sitka Conservation Society: http://www.sitkawild.org/take_action
“There are no healthy salmon runs without healthy habitat” states Tele, “As we’ve seen in the stark distinction between Alaska & the West Coast, there’s no healthy habitat without vigorous preservation & restoration efforts.”
Tele, Aboard the Nerka
Aslan would like to formally thank Joel and Tele at Nerka Sea Frozen Salmon for being such rockstar suppliers. To learn more about this dynamic duo or to read the story of the time they assisted in the rescue of a fisherman lost at sea in a fish tote- check out Nerka’s website. You won’t be disappointed.
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