Reef net fishermen work to catch sockeye salmon off the shores of Lummi Island in Rosario Straight. Using a fishing technique that was invented by Coast Salish native Americans and is unique in the world, a handful of "amateur" commercial fishermen spend their free time in the summer and fall netting salmon that swim down a gauntlet of lines and into a net rigged between two boats. A spotter in a tower on the front of the boats gives the signal to haul when he sees the targeted fish species swim into the net (while letting non-targeted fish escape). In the 1950s over a hundred reef nets were rigged along this shore but now market conditions have turned this environmentally sound and picturesque fishery into a hobby business and only nine crews remain.
Salmon smolts (recently hatched juveniles heading to sea) were caught below the Dalles Dam on the Columbia River as part of a National Marine Fisheries research project to determine the impacts of dams on the Columbia River. The juveniles' blood was tested to see if the rapid descent through the dam had caused potentially fatal nitrogen narcosis commonly known as "the bends", which can cause the fish to suffocate .
A fisherman and member of the Seafood Producers Coop brings a coho salmon aboard. The organization specializes in producing value-added hook and line caught seafood that receive exceptionally careful handling and are extremely high in quality.
