“Commercial fishing using net setting and drifting for the salmon runs”

During the long Alaskan summers, at the end of June, the opening of commercial fishing using net setting and drifting is used for the salmon runs throughout Bristol Bay. Both in historic and economic terms, Pilot Point has depended on its existence on the substantial seasonal returns of anadromous Pacific salmon, especially sockeye which is the mainstay economic force of the entire region.

The Salvucci family, who live in Anchorage, Alaska, has been commercially fishing the salmon runs in Pilot Point for the past twenty years and have a compound at Pilot Point where we take an inside look at life of commercial fishing during the salmon runs.

This remote enclave called Pilot Point, is located eighty some miles from King Salmon, over one hundred miles from Dillingham on the northern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, and the east shore of Ugashik Bay. In 1889, this was a mixed Aleut and Eskimo village with a fish salting plant called "Pilot Station." Pilots were stationed here to take boats upriver to a large cannery at Ugashik. A cannery was built by Bering Sea Packing Co. in 1891 and many nationalities came to work in the canneries - Italians, Chinese and northern Europeans. Since the 1980s the population has ranged from about 64 to 100 residents, mostly Alaska Native People of Alutiiq and Yup’ik Eskimo descent. The quaint, historical fishing village during the salmon run was quite the memorable experience.

Documentary Travel Photography: Gail Fisher