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Bering Sea and Kamchatka
Expedition To Bristol Bay
World Wildlife Fund Board Chairman Bruce Babbitt travels to Alaska's Bristol Bay in hopes of repeating history and helping prevent oil and gas development in the region.
Part 4: From the sea to your plate
On a tour of the Dillingham docks with Thomas Tilden, one of many Alaska Native fishermen.
© WWF-Canon / Tom LALLEY
From Choggiung, we fly back to Dillingham to meet with Thomas Tilden by his boat at the marina in Dillingham. Tom is the former mayor of Dillingham and a prominent community leader. He's also a commercial fisherman and an Alaska native. That's not an unusual combination. Many native people fish to make a living and to feed their family and community.
Tilden tells me about the thrill of the salmon season, when he and his crew work nearly nonstop to catch as many salmon as they can. He said that salmon season was a dramatic and frenetic time of the year because native fishermen like him have to catch enough fish to turn a profit and feed his family and other community members.
Next to the marina is Peter Pan Seafoods, the oldest continually operating cannery in Alaska. Like the fishermen, the cannery only operates during the two-month salmon season. Fish begin arriving in early June, peak around the 4th of July, and by the first week of August, it's usually over.
Getting a tour of a fish packing plant owned by Peter Pan Seafoods with Norman Van Vactor. This is the oldest of its kind in Alaska.
© WWF-Canon / Tom LALLEY
Norman Van Vactor runs the plant and says the fish processed here go all over the world. In the U.S., the fish is sold at Costco, Whole Foods and at smaller markets.
The plant is now in the process of being shuttered for the winter, but, as Van Vactor takes me on a tour, he explains how the plant buzzes with activity at the height of the season. More than 320 people work here, and the plant contracts with more than 180 drift fishing boats and 100 set net operations.
"The fish coming from this plant will feed thousands upon thousands of people outside of Alaska."
