Herring season officially opened as of 1:45pm on Thursday afternoon in the Starigavan and Katlian Bay area. (This area is out at the end of one of the two main roads that runs from the middle of town to the ends of town.) Of course this meant that anyone in Sitka who wasn't busy working, drove to the part of the island that gave them the best view of the cluster of boats. Earlier in the week, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game
announced that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, the Sitka herring fishery would be
placed on two-hour notice. So, after they announced the season opening, Brinleigh and I, with the rest of the town, headed out to Starigavan to watch the all the boats and planes.
Once we were almost to Starigavan, I started to see more and more cars pulled over on the side of the road. And then all of a sudden after rounding a curve, cars parked bumper to bumper on both sides of the road. It was a complete shit show. I could not find a place to park. It was crazy. Thankfully, people only really went out to snap a few pictures so spaces were opening up fairly quickly. I took pictures from several different locations and then we headed back into town. On our way back in, I looked out into the water and saw a couple whales and since I already had my camera ready with the zoom lens, I pulled over & was able to get a few pictures. They weren't jumping out of the water, just their backs were breaching the surface, but it's still amazing to see them.
This was the second time I have been able to see the opening of herring season. The first year we were here, the location was further off shore and could only really be seen through binoculars. Last year, we were in North Carolina while Kolt was going to school. I was super excited this year when I saw that the location was closer to the road and we could see it fairly well. Especially with my DSLR camera. I put the bigger zoom lens on and was able to get some great pictures. Including a close up of the Maverick, one of the boats from the show Deadliest Catch. Funny Story: I actually didn't know it was the Maverick when I was taking pictures. I just saw a boat and decided I wanted to take a close up of one particular boat. It was the only picture I took of just one boat and not a group of boats. When I got home, I put all the pictures on the computer and Boom! My solo ship pic was.... the Maverick!
The radio station reported on facebook that there were about forty-eight seine boats and a dozen or more tenders in addition to the aircraft that were participating. I only saw maybe five planes above who were spotting the herring for the boats below. From what I remember from the first herring season, there were a lot more planes above.
