sportsfishguy
2008-07-11 05:18:07
We recently returned from a 3 day sports chart trip to Sitka. On our return, while at the Sitka airport, we all agreed it was the best fishing trip of our lives. We were hooked on Sitka. On opening our catch back home we discovered the fish processor, Big Blue Fisheries, had kept our 30+ kings and given us pinks and tails. When we called Big Blue to work out the issue they told me to FO. This is a black mark on Sitka. SHame Shame Shame.
biorka
2008-07-11 20:34:56
Please do not chastise all Sitka for the behavior of what appears to be just another unscupulous "Charter Nazi"! You do realize that this is a "commercial trolling" forum and many, if not most here are not fond of the charter industry.
That said, sorry you had to learn the hard way what most of us already know.
It does seem a bit odd that they would blatantly steal your fish, thus guaranteeing that you will not return to them so that they could "hook you again"!?
Salty
2008-07-12 16:48:26
Sport fish guy. I am really sorry to hear you got ripped off. I wonder where those 30 pound kings went. Big Blue also buys from the commercial fleet and markets them fresh, frozen, and smoked. I have often wondered whether there is a clear, enforceable separation of the products.
If you are so inclined I would also like to know how any aware, educated, citizen in this time of carbon footprint conciousness can morally or ethically justify the carbon cost of flying to Sitka and chartering to the fishing grounds for three or four days to harvest fish that otherwise would be available for a fraction of the carbon cost by going to their local fish store. It also should be noted that every salmon, halibut, lingcod, rockfish, etc. was fully allocated to commercial, unguided sport, subsistence, and conservation before the recent explosive growth of the charter fleet. So, every fish caught by a guided client costs one of the above groups or the resource. In Sitka we learned that it came mostly at the expense of local residents trying to catch a halibut to eat in the places close to town and we enacted, with the co-operation of the charter fleet, closures to protect those opportunities.
My father pioneered sport fish guiding in SE Alaska in the 50's and 60's, I have guided myself, and I have wonderful friends in the sport fish guiding business here. Nevertheless, I really can't understand how it makes any conservation sense in these times.
sigrutter
2009-03-01 16:44:33
Did you report him to Ak, Fish&Wildlife Protection? Selling sport caught fish into comm channels is a federal crime. A violation of the Lacey Act.