2024 Pacific Marine Expo in photos
Published onThe 2024 Pacific Marine Expo brought together a tight-knit community of commercial fishermen, vessel operators, and industry professionals, all eager to share knowledge and showcase innovations. With a focus on fostering connections, the event featured the NF Highliner Ceremony, honoring industry veterans for their contributions, and the Coastal Challenge, an interactive way to test your skills as a fisherman. Attendees gathered to discuss pressing issues such as sustainability, market diversification, and the challenges facing Alaska fisheries. New technologies, like Kongsbergs FS80 trawl sonar, were also on display, sparking conversations about the future of fishing. The Expo showed the strength of a community that continues to evolve while remaining deeply rooted in tradition. Until next year, enjoy the 2024 Expo through pictures captured by Brandon Cole. You can find him on Instagram @alaskanadventures
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Commercial Fishing Photo Stories: Dungeness Crabbing- Puget Sound
Published onThe weather is starting to turn here in the Puget Sound. Summer greens are changing to yellows, oranges and reds against the backdrop of the crisp blue water. For non-ocean dwellers this change is a sign of pumpkin patches and plaids. But for us sea folk in the region its the season of Dungeness crab. This west coast staple is a hearty species that roams from California all the way up to Alaska. The commercial harvest varies from state to state but the start for Washington is usually the first week of October in the Puget Sound. The meat is slightly sweet with a nutty profile and best when drenched in butter and garlic. (Isnt everything though?) I became a true fisherman the season I fished Dungees alongside my husband. My short career as a mariner has been speckled with deckhand work but I had never hauled a pot ...
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Commercial Fishing Photo Stories: Bristol Bay in the Summer
Published onOver the last 5 years I have spent 4 of them going to Bristol Bay in the summer to witness the largest commercial harvest of wild sockeye salmon in the world. I have worked the deck of a tender, picked fish on a gillnetter, walked the trail with bears at Brooks Lodge and thrown up my spaghetti on a particularly rough ride back from the Nushagak. Bristol Bay has been a contribution to my success as a photographer as well as my evolution into the passionate seafood educator Im working to become. My first summer working on the deck of a tender in 2017 was the beginning of my rebirth as a photographer. It was a departure from the brides and grooms I had been used to working with but I felt so comfortable and inspired in this new environment. It wasnt the landscapes because, if were being honest, the ...
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Commercial Fishing Photo Stories: The Hunt for Fish Aboard the F/V Atlantis in Southern Alaska
Published onI heard the rustling of rain gear and rubber boots around 4am. Slowly and quite uncomfortably I flipped around in my bunk to check the galley for my cue to get out of bed. I was eight months pregnant at the time with swollen ankles and tiny feet kicking me in the ribs. The opportunity to photograph on a seiner had eluded me for years so there was no way pregnancy was going to stop me when McKenna Peterson on the F/V Atlantis offered to host me for a few nights. Once the engine fired up and the anchor chain rattled I made my way out on deck. The air was still and the water was glass. As we made our way to make the first set I filled my lungs with the salty breeze. My baby girl would know this feeling someday; the peace of being on a ...
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