Scraped together all the money and credit I could, then flew down to Washington to see if I would buy the boat I had been investigating for a week or two after seeing it in Pacific Fishing Magazine. I did my preliminary homework of having a mechanic look at the outboard (compression test came in fine), and a marine survey. With those both looking good, I flew to Seattle on airmiles (it was $720 for a paid ticket!) at 1:15 am, took the 6 am bus to Mt. Vernon, WA, where I met my Peace Corps friend Andrea, who lives there with her husband. She gave me her car, and I headed over to the boat owner’s house nearby. We drove to LaConner to test run the boat. My first impression was that it was much larger than I thought it would be. At just 26 feet long, it’s a lot of boat. We took it for a test run, which went fine. I was down there trying to find something to stop me from buying a boat right now, but realized the boat was exactly what I was looking for. We met later at the owners house with the broker, traded checks and titles and bill of sale, and I was a boat owner again. I didn’t even have buyers remorse the next morning when the owner and I towed the boat up to Bellingham to put on the Alaska ferry, and that was that. I flew back and am here now waiting for the vessel to arrive on Monday. Unfortunately, my buddies will have to pull the boat from the ferry as I was invited to a meeting for Alaska Seagrant in Anchorage to talk about my fishing operation.

Had a great time with Andrea and Alan. They served in the Peace Corps in Liberia, and I trained with Andrea at the Univ. of Oklahoma for 10 weeks prior to our leaving for our assignments in Africa. Peace Corps friends are like people you grow up with – you may not see them for years, but when you get together, it’s like you haven’t seen them for a week or two, and you’re immediately at ease in their company.

I returned home to more rain. It was about 70 and dry in Washington, but not here of course. I opened my mail to find that I was not endorsed by the Juneau Central Labor Council, who I met with last week. They said they would not endorse my candidacy (which I never asked them to do in the first place) but “encouraged me to accumulate additional experience and greater familiarity with the many issues and concerns of working people and their families so I might sometime serve with understanding and effectiveness.”

Huh. I don’t know issues and concerns and am not familiar with “working people”. Apparently, starting your own business and running it on a shoestring with no paid leave, insurance, paid cigarette smoking breaks or holidays is not “work”. Offloading a boat by hand and pushing 500 lb totes full of salmon up a gangway at low tide because there are no mechanical means of doing so at our sorry harbor is not “work”. Taking all of the business risk and paying everyone (including their union worker’s wages) and hope like hell you have a dime left at then end of the month is not “work”. Maybe it only counts as “work” if you work for a union. I’ll need to look that up in the dictionary. Neat……….. I’ll tuck this letter in my assembly folder and hope to find out what “work” is when I attend the candidate forums. Should be fun!

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com

Went to the doctor and found out the accident I had moving fish 3 weeks ago was fairly serious.  I broke out a chip of bone that attaches to the tendon on the knuckle closest to the fingernail of the middle finger of my left hand.  It’s stayed swollen and red, even after I gained movement and use back.  Turns out that’s why I couldn’t straighten out the end of my finger anymore.  I’ll be in a splint for 6 to 8 weeks, and hope that it will heal, as I really don’t want surgery.

After the doctor’s appt, I entered the Assembly race for real yesterday at an interview with a coalition of local unions.  They had a hard time understanding at first how or why someone would run on a single issue like I am.  I came away convinced that my mission and campaign style were just what I wanted:  by focusing on the single issue of harbor funding and reform, I can hit people right between the eyes with both barrels again and again, instead of diluting my time with other issues.

Candidates who want to get elected say things people want to hear.  Last year, one ran an ad that said “Build the Pool” and, in the same ad “Put the Lid on Taxes”.  He won, of course, even though construction of the pool would have increased the tax load to pay for operations.  Another candidate jumped on the “affordable housing” bandwagon.  He won, too.  Then, as his first act of supporting affordable housing, he voted to open up some of the most expensive land in Juneau, with the justifcation that “the rich people will buy this land, and the rest of you peons can buy the houses they move out of”.  Trickle down economics at it’s best.  I’ve just got a mission I want accomplished, and come in with an actual plan that no one at the table questioned yesterday.  I told them I didn’t care if they voted for me or the other candidate: the issue would remain and the fleet would continue leaving town if nothing changed, and that’s what I wanted the community to hear.

The campaign manager for the other candidate was there.  It will be interesting to see if he now raises this issue after being silent about it during his first term, along with all the other assembly members, the mayor, and city manager.  My bandwagon is big and there’s plenty of room, so I’ll welcome anyone and everyone aboard.  Better late than never!

I had coffee with a current assembly member today. What I found most interesting was that he said he went along with what the harbor board and Port Director told him because he wasn’t familiar with the harbors and so didn’t want to really challenge what was going on.  This just reiterated to me that I’m on the right track.  He did like my incentive program for commercial fishermen, and I’ll be interested if he steals my idea or gives me credit for it.  It also showed me how clueless and apathetic the assembly is to the commercial fishing fleet here.

Spent the rest of the morning trying to find some pink salmon, with no luck.  I spoke to a seiner in Kodiak who said that bled and unbled pinks tasted the same after 1 year in the freezer.  This may be true for bled fish in the traditional manner of breaking a gill or stabbing fish as they roll out of a seine.  I’d like to compare unbled fish with our pressure bled fish to see if there’s a difference.  I hope that getting the blood out as thoroughly as we do does make a difference.  I know the product is beautiful.

We got the engine report on the boat we’re looking to buy, and it all checked out.  Now just waiting for a survey.  I really would rather not buy a boat right now, but know it’s the only way we’ll be able to achieve the quality and inventory we need to operate and make a living, so here we go.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK  99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com

Today is my first “forum” with city interests for the Assembly election. It’s in front of a bunch of unions, so that should show them just how not-ready I am for politics. We’ll see.

Spent 4 hours last night re vack-packing orders to go out. The vac packer is one of the weak links at my processor, and I’ll end up doing at least 1/2 of what they’ve done for me over again. Last year, the unit didn’t seal well. This year, it didn’t draw quite enough vacuum for me when they did some of our fish. The fish are okay and there’s no air leak for now and probably months, but the machine didn’t quite get all the air out to my standars. An untrained eye might not notice, and I’m sure lots of fish is sold like this, but I think that the fish won’t be as good if someone pulls it from their freezer 6 months from now, so I’m redoing it. That way, I sleep better, and if we don’t make it, it won’t be due to poor fish or customer service.

This is one reason I sold the boat and went to this game plan – I can pay attention to stuff like this, and put out a great, consistent product in every order. Unlike last year, screw-ups have gone way down since I’ve taken over packing. As the last person to see our fish before they get to a customer, I’m now attending to be sure people get the right volume they ordered and sure that good looking fish goes in the box. If it doesn’t, it’s my fault and mine only – not someone just punching a time clock.

We’re getting closer to buying a skiff so that I can haul fish next year, and handle them to meet our standards. We’re already out of sockeye and will be out of pink salmon soon enough. Fishermen are NOW calling, after I solicited fish over a month ago, wanting to sell me king salmon next season! We’ll be lucky to get in enough coho this season, particularly if the troll fishery closes early, but we’ll do all we can. We tried buying fish from processor inventories last year when we ran out of our own, and we were not happy with the product quality – it’s fine for the commodity markets, but when you’ve been producing fish to our standards, it’s pretty hard to see fish that have not been pressure bled.

Kind of like my wife and coffee- once she discovered likes espresso and lattes, and can’t ever go back to coffee from the can. Funny thing is, I’m just the opposite – I only like coffee from a can. Anyway, we’ll get all we can and hope I can find work this winter and then roll out our updated business model next spring if we get the boat.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com

Went sport fishing yesterday in the first time in a couple years – funny thing is, that’s what brought me up here 23 years ago. I went in my buddy Ron’s skiff with his fishing gear. When we got out to the spot, he directed me to a rod and a herring bait set up. I took out my secret coho salmon weapon – the number 5 canadian wonder pumpkin orange spoon – and said I’d go with that. He thought I was nuts, put on herring on his fishing rod, and we started. I got fish number 1. Then Ron caught one, and was thinking – okay, Mark’s first fish was lucky. Now I’ll really show him the power of bait. Then I caught number 2. Then number 3. And number 4. Final score: spoon 4. herring 1. Then I went with Ron to his house and showed him how to pressure bleed fish with his garden hose and my attachment. He was duly impressed – much more so than his wife Jeanne, who only saw the blood and guts. She loves salmon, but doesn’t want to see her sausage being made.

The summer has been exciting and uncertain. I many times don’t know when I’ll get more fish until a fisherman calls me on his way back to town. Then, if I’ve not bought from him before or have bought from him and he’s not pressure bled fish as we’d like, I ask how they’ve handled their fish, etc. Some fishermen have been eager to learn how to pressure bleed- they listen to what I’m telling them, and practice until they get it right.

Others don’t listen. Either they think they know more than I do, don’t care, or are already getting their in-town list together in their heads. A couple fishermen have been in 3 times with fish to sell, and still haven’t caught on. The last trip, they were really into the fish, so, having not perfected the pressure bleeding system when fishing was slower, they now had no patience to do it, and merely production-fished. They brought in their fish wanting to sell to me. When I heard the excuses start, I should have known they hadn’t done what we’d asked. One said he tried one fish and it didn’t work and that I’d need to show him- I’d already explained how to do it the 3 other times I’d bought fish from him, and he certainly could have called me from where he was fishing to have me talk him through it. He never did call back to have me buy his fish, so I might have pissed him off for good. He had over a hundred fish and so a hundred chances to practice to get it right, but couldn’t pass up the big volume day.

The other seller said he’d pressure bled the fish the “old fashioned way”, which I took to mean he cut the back bones of the spine that you see sticking up after you dress a fish, and then insert your hose there. This works okay, and it’s better than not doing anything, and he’d brought in nice fish done this way and with the belly wall veins scraped his first delivery. I assumed he meant this batch would be the same. This would be what’s called “SPC standards”, the standard of the region’s salmon cooperative.

He then started in with excuses of not being able to pressure bleed when the fishing is hot and heavy. He said it takes an extra minute per fish to do it this way. I asked him how much the fish weighed (7 lbs) and then said I was paying him 20 cents above dock price, so that’s $1.40 extra per fish times 60 minutes or about $100 dollars an hour and that sure seemed like a good living. Then he tried to say it was longer than a minute, so I said, let’s say it’s 2 minutes a fish. That’s $50 dollars an hour, and so on. He finally conceded. He just didn’t want to figure out how to make it work.

What surprised me most of all was when I went down to offload his fish. Not only had he not done a very good job of pressure bleeding the tail, as evidenced by the blood collecting in the cracked spine bones, he had not even scraped the belly walls. These were by far the worst fish he or anyone had brought to me this summer. Not only would these 1000 lbs of fish cost me $2000 to buy, I’d need to spend another $4.00 per pound to have them smoked and pouched – the only premium product form I can make out of fish like this. So, I’d have $6,000 into this load and likely not see any return on the investment for a year or two. When quantity wins out over quality, it’s time to find some other boats.

When you get excuses and claims of quality and then a product like this, you know the seller just has not concept of what you are trying to do – they have no problems selling me fish that if we sold them in our fresh or frozen markets, would jepordize our reputation. We guarantee our fish to our customers. If I buy a fish for $2.00 a pound, I don’t have just that cost I’m risking. I have the costs of moving that fish to my processor, processing that fish to vacuum packed fillet, and shipping the fish at $3.00 per pound to my customer. If the customer pays $10.00 per pound, I’m on the hook for all the costs from the boat to him, not just the $2.00/lb we paid for the fish. If you get a fishermen who doesn’t care about that, you know you have to concentrate on only those who do, be willing to pay them a fair price for the fish they bring in, and do everything you can to maintain and nuture that relationship.

We’re now looking at purchasing a skiff as another way of getting quality certainty for our fish. I plan to go and buy fish on the grounds in the round from fishermen as they catch the fish, and then pressure bleed the fish and ice them as we need, assuring we’ll get the fish quality we want. That way, we’ll take the quality control out of the fishermen and put it into ours, which will make both sides happier. We also hope to do work for other fishermen who direct market their catch like we did, and who would want us to take their fish from their boat and get it to town and shipped or to their processor, etc. With our reputation, they know we’ll handle their fish carefully, and keep their good product good until it reaches it’s destination. Some may baulk at paying someone like us to do this service, but as fuel prices keep climbing, it should make more and more sense for us to fill this niche for them.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com

So today the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game announces a closure of the troll fishery for 5 days. I’d thought I’d not got the pink or sockeye salmon I’d wanted this season, but thought surely I could get all the coho I wanted. Lots of coho around here, but apparently not in other parts of the region. So, I’ll have to hope
to still get all we can.

Yesterday broke a 21 straight day of rain (our second such streak this year!) with a little sun. I cut firewood and just appreciated no rain and some time in the woods. I put on a tailgate lift for putting on half totes of fish, and it also works great for wood – just roll the big rounds on the lift, raise it, and roll them in the truck bed. Got one more load of wood today.

I then picked up fish from a troller, Ross. He’s really taken a shine to learning the pressure bleeding techniques I’ve been coaching him with, and now has graduated to being able to do even pink salmon, so he’s pretty much got it. I loaded the fish into a half tote, which was on a cart. I just barely had the strength to push the load up the harbor ramp about 1.5 hours after high tide. So, a satisfying day of physical labor all around. Starting raining this afternoon, and looks like we’re in for several more.

Tomorrow is a big primary day here for statewide elections, particularly the Republican party governor candidates. The sitting governor is polling 3rd behind the two opponents. The Democratic race is a former governor and a Rep. from the state house who I know and worked with a few years ago and really liked. Hope he can pull off an upset. Then, I think I won’t care much who wins the governorship.

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com
“GET OFF THE SOFA and VOTE FOR STOPHA!”
for Juneau Assembly, Oct. 2006
Download Campaign Sign at www.GoodSalmon.com

I’m so desparate to find someone – anyone- to sell me quality pink salmon that I got my 18 foot skiff licensed to go out and get them directly off of gillnet vessels as they harvest them. Things were going okay till the weather kicked up a little. I pulled up to the brother of a friend of mine, and he warned me that it didn’t look like a real safe operation I had going on. I told him I knew, it was my first try, and I’d be careful. He dropped fish down to me, and I left for home, with a slight chop to the quarter stern. Then the outboard cut down – I was about out of fuel, and was not in a good situation, as a stern wave could swamp me. A full 1/2 tote of fish was between me and the outboard can I needed to fill, and I could not get the tote moved, as I bobbed up and down in the seas. I could see the gillnetter who warned me coming over to make sure I was okay. After several minutes, I finally got the can free, filled it, and got on my way. I just about kissed the dock when I got there, and learned I’m not going this route again. I’ve got to get fishermen onboard before the season starts to do what I need so that they will allow me to buy their fish and give them money. Funny how some people make that so hard…

–
Mark Stopha and Sara Hannan
Alaska Wild Salmon Company
Wild Salmon and Salmon Pet Treats
4455 N. Douglas Hwy
Juneau, AK 99801
907-463-3115
www.GoodSalmon.com