Kodiak Alaska

Kodiak Island is a green island in the summer and kind of golden brown in the winter. There are loads of Sitka blacktail deer that feed on the grass and a number of bears that feed on the salmon in the streams and the deer in the hills. It was not unusual to come upon deer remains that had been dinner for a hungry bear. There is a coast guard station a few miles out of town. It is the base for rescue helicopters and c-130's and the various boats that serve in the guard up there. These men and women are highly respected by the local fishermen because many of them had been rescued in conditions that put the guardsmens lives in peril as well. The Aleut people have mixed with the Russians over the years and they are a hardy breed. The Russian Orthodox Church is still very traditional all the way down the chain. Vitus Bering (Danish)and Alaxander Baranof (Russian) were famous explorers that spent a lot of time in these waters developing the fur seal trade for Russia.   Many locals are fishermen that earn their living from the sea. The king crab was a big money maker in the 70's and into the 80's but the pressure was pretty hard and the stocks decreased so it is not the big thing anymore. The trend seemed to be heading towards joint venture bottom fishing (cod and pollack) and opelio tanners out in the Bering Sea. The local fishermen keep a steady salmon fishery going and there is some herring and dungeness crab as well. The boom in the bottom fish tapered of as well. At one time there was schools of pollack 40 miles long and the trawlers scooped up ton after ton of them for the soviet factory ships standing by. Many of the big operators migrated to Dutch Harbor in Unalaska down the chain. There is still plenty of action. This is a temperate place to live because of the weather patterns. Fishermen and hunters have endless opportunity to get their fish and game. There are loads of deer all over the island. They run kind of small except for the ones around Uganik bay where they get the size of whitetail deer for some reason. There are also the bears and elk are found on nearby Afognak Island along with a healthy supply of deer. A lot of the locals head out in their salmon boats and stay on the board at night and go ashore in the mornings to look for deer. It is a great way to fill the refrigerator for the winter season. Alaska www.dutchpickle.com

 

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