It’s 8 a.m. in Halibut Cove. The July sun is beaming, there is coffee in my mug, and it’s time for fish camp.
My destination is Donny’s floating house, moored by a string of floating docks to Halibut Cove’s isthmus. For those of you who don’t know about the small community across Kachemak Bay from Homer that is Halibut Cove, events here are dictated by the tides and the bounty of the season.
Don Darnel has hosted Fish Camp every summer for the past 25 years. Every weekend in July, he opens his home, fish processing area, drying racks, smokers and pressure cookers to 16 families who participate in the tradition of smoking salmon.
From great grandparents to young children, everyone has a role in preparing the fish for canning. The process of fish camp starts with the fish angels, four ladies who do most of the organizing for the event. You know who they are because each one has a custom-made pin made by local artist and jeweler, Jay Greene. If you show up for fish camp and don’t have a job, the angels will give you one.
After 25 years, this is a well-oiled machine.
Salmon is either brought by the participating families or purchased from one of the local fishing boats. Each fish is weighed and measured before being sent down the makeshift conveyor line out on Donny’s dock. After 25 years, this is a well-oiled machine: everyone has a position on the line and they get right to it.
From great grandparents to young children, everyone has a role in preparing the fish.
Standing on the dock on one day of fish camp, I am surrounded by rows of deep red strips of salmon drying, the background full of chatter of families and friends reminiscing about the summer’s adventures. Cuts of varying size are placed out on a drying table with Tibetan flags flapping about in the morning breeze. The flags’ constant movement keeps the gulls away, an elegant solution.
This is a productive salmon life: I’m barely done with my coffee and they are already halfway through filleting twenty salmon.
I’m barely done with my coffee and they are already halfway through filleting twenty salmon.
