About 30 people filled Kodiak’s Fisherman’s Hall near the harbor on June 4th where 12 greenhorns met with safety trainers, boat captains, and other instructors during a salmon chowder lunch.
Adelaide Odlin is one of the youngest in the class at just 12 years old. This summer is her first time fishing, but she’s spent time on her family’s boat for about half of her life.
“I haven’t really worked on it, but I’ve been out since I was maybe five or six,” she said. “The first day we did some knot tying then net mending, then we also started the safety things.”
The idea behind the AK On Board Crew Training Program is to get more young people, like Adelaide, involved in commercial fishing and make opportunities for her peers to gain basic fishing and safety skills in an effort to address the “graying of the fleet.” A University of Alaska study showed the median age of fishermen has been growing higher in recent years.
One of the organizers was Theresa Peterson with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. She and instructors even put out a map of different seasons around Alaska to help them have an idea of where crew jobs are and plan out potential career paths.
“I kind of wanted to point out (that) you can fish summer in this area, you can fish fall in this area, can fish winter in this area, kind of letting people know there was year round fishing opportunity, if that’s what you’re after,” Peterson said.
But one of the most important sets of skills fishermen learned were about safety from the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association, or AMSEA.
“I had a couple extra people join the AMSEA component just so they could get through their training,” said Julie Matweyou with Alaska Sea Grant, another organizer.
She said they were a valuable partner in planning the training and figuring out what kinds of skills experienced captains wanted from new crewmembers, too. And having a lunch like this to connect new fishermen to the existing fleet.
“The networking and apprenticeship aspects are really important,” Matweyou said. “That was why this training was developed like that, to make these connections in the community and get new fishermen connected to skippers and experienced fishermen.”
But for Adelaide, she’ll be on her family’s skiff seining. She said she’s a bit more confident after taking the class, but still nervous ahead of her first season.
“The skiff man can make a lot of money, but I could also lose you the net, and I don’t want to do that,” Adelaide said.
Kodiak’s salmon season started on June 9th and runs through early fall.
