#16 - Homer's Odyssey
The Old Man and The Sea
After a lot of adventures, we finally arrived in Homer, a fishing port 300 miles south of Anchorage. This is where we laid our backpacks for two weeks to learn more about the Alaskan fishes that arrive on our plates in Europe. After three weeks of intense adventures, we finally have the opportunity to become sedentary and focus again on the essence of our project.
Originally the idea of Travelling Farmers is to share the daily life of those who produce the food we consume. After having learnt about fruit, vegetable and livestock in Uruguay, Mexico and the United States, our step in Alaska is intended to complement that vision with the study of fishing, working along with fishermen.
Tristan fishing small flounders close to the docks
What we do here is very different from what we did elsewhere. There is no agriculture here as we quickly learned: Alaska works differently.
Here, the region is so wild that its inhabitants do not need to grow food: they collect it. Why raising livestock when moose cross your garden every day, and hunting them is allowed? Fish are abundant in the ocean - why breed them in captivity? And in terms of fruit and vegetables, each household receives from the federal state a huge greenhouse in its garden for free, so that a large number of local grow their own food. This movement, called "Alaska Grown", aims at reducing the dependence of the region in fruits and vegetables. Therefore, there is no agricultural firm in the classical sense: nature is abundant enough to feed the few people who live here and the climate is so harsh that the operation could operate only three months a year.
Yes, mooses in the city!
Another interesting fact: the largest vegetables on the planet do not come from tropical regions but from Alaska... Indeed, the sun is shining 24 hours a day in summer, and plantations grow at an impressive rate since photosynthesis never stops.
11pm and still daylight!
We are now staying at Gary and Barbara’s place, after having met them on the docks a few days ago. Gary, who has long been a commercial fishing ship captain allowed us to discover many aspects of fishing in Alaska.
Two species are mostly caught in the vicinity of Homer: salmon and halibut, large flat fish with delicious flesh.
A deckhand unloading halibuts on the docks
Let’s start with the salmon! Salmon is only fished three months a year, in summer. Indeed, huge banns of adult salmon gather at that time before going up the rivers where they were born to spawn.
Fishermen take advantage of this bargain and work all day long on small boats of about ten meters, during those three months. Mainly fished with nets, salmon are then brought ashore by other boats (tenders) that come into sea so that fishermen do not lose time returning to port! In less than a hundred days, a medium-sized boat with three men on board may fish up to 500 tons of salmon! Unlike France, where the salmon is a luxury, salmon is consumed daily in Alaska. The Travelling Farmers are therefore not unhappy to have some salmon in there plates everyday.
Something we did not know before: there are several kinds of salmon, and all are not equal! France does not have the culture of that fish; we assimilate the different varieties of salmon under one name, which local do not do here. King salmon, which can reach 25 pounds, is five times more expensive per kilo than pink salmon.
Homer's harbour
Then, Homer is considered the world capital of the halibut fishery.
Flatfish, resembling a large flounder, halibut has two eyes on the same side of the head. Less harsh than salmon fishing, boats go to the sea for three days and come back with hundreds of fishes a meter long on average. Once hoisted on the docks, the fish are cut on site and then shipped to the "Lower 48" (the "mainland" US) by truck in 72 hours!
Weighted and processed on the docks: the freshest fish on earth!
We also met a very famous ship in the United States and its crew: the Time Bandit. For connoisseurs, this crab fishing boat is one of the stars of the show "The Deadliest Catch" on Discovery Channel broadcast in over one hundred and fifty countries.
The crab fishing season takes place in the Bering Sea in winter, making it one of the most dangerous fishery in the world: by hollows of ten meters, fishermen risk their life to catch Kamchatka crabs and snow crab. The high price of these crabs explains the incredible risks taken by sailors. It is therefore not surprising to learn that this business is listed by the US Bureau of Labor as having the highest mortality rate of all occupations in the country. Garry, with whom we are staying, made two winters in the Bering Sea and he honestly told us he "really does not advise anyone to do this job."
The crab fishermen we interviewed were consistent with the image that we made it: tattooed and strong headers, cigarette in mouth and beer in hand at ten o'clock in the morning ...
Some jobs require more courage than others !
The Time Bandit
But the most impressive discovery that we made here is that of the pace of life. Indeed, the life of Alaskans is dictated by the rhythm of nature because the eight coldest months of the year are so rude that animal and plant life seems to stop there. During this period, most men do not work and are dedicated to other activities such as hunting.
And when spring comes, nature awakens more powerful than elsewhere and economic life becomes suddenly very intense. Thanks to the abundance of natural resources people start to work hard and make their wage for the whole year. A sailor on a halibut fishing boat wins, for example, 600 dollars a day at sea!
This seasonal life is very different from the idea we have of life in big cities where we work the same way on June 15th and December 15th.
But you may ask yourself, what are we, Travelling Farmers, doing in the middle of this exciting starting season?
Our priority was first to find stable housing for our two weeks here in Homer. For a few days, we wandered in the docks and talk to everyone we met, talking about our adventure and wondering where work opportunities were. Once again, we could count with luck.
Barbara and her husband Gary own Inlet Charters which offers sea tours to discover the pleasures of fishing in Alaska. Seduced by our project, she immediately offered to host us at her house in exchange for our work in her garden. Since Wednesday, we live in the beautiful house overlooking the ocean and mountains. Thanks to our experience of gardeners, we work every morning to renovate her garden that fell into disrepair after a few years of neglect. In the afternoon, we go by bike on the docks, located ten miles from the house, and wander, eager for any meeting that would allow us to learn more about local life.
Our daily commuting ... better than taking the subway !
Without working visa, the companies responsible for processing the fish once unloaded from the boats could not temporarily hire us. But fate has allowed us to partially make up for the financial difficulties related to the loss of our car.
On Monday as we were heading to the fishing harbor, we were given a lift by Kyle and Billy, owners of a construction company. Currently in charge of rebuilding an old house, they quickly offered us to help them for the day. So we once again adapted our plans to the circumstances, and spent the day with them, on site, to redo the foundations of the house!
A good work out for the Travelling Farmers
The next day, we decided to ask all the boats docked if they needed labor. Unfortunately, we quickly realized that all crews are already trained for the season, and it would now be difficult to find a place on a ship. But we had the chance to meet Steve who, failing to be able to give us some work on his boat, proposed to help him build a protection against moose in his garden. During 9 hours on Friday, we've been working on planting high poles (3 meters high, which is the minimum necessary height to stop a moose).
We measure every day a little more the beautiful scenery around us, and we often spend long moments observing huge moose wander into town, or eagles fly over the harbor majestically in search a fish to catch.
Next Sunday we’ll fly to a new country, New Zealand. So we're trying to enjoy the magical moments that we live here in Alaska. And today, we finally got the opportunity to go fishing for halibut at sea, but we'll tell you more about that next week.
A teaser from our real Alaskan fishing experience!
See you next Sunday