Lincoln Elementary School - Olympia, Washington

#3 The Fisher's Perspective
Investigating Stories
by Annie M. Roberts
 
Exercise:

Research one of the perspectives (Northwest Coastal Native American, fisher, logger, farmer), using interviews or library resources, and write a story from that perspective.  This story could express the ways in which these types of people might affect salmon and the ways in which the existence of salmon can affect these people.  It could express why salmon is important to this group (financially, emotionally, historically). This exercise could be expanded or contracted according to the age of your students.
 

Thoughts for Consideration Before Beginning Research

1. What do you think it is like to work as a fisher?  What would it smell like?  What clothes would you wear?
2. Why are fishers important to all of us?
3. In what ways do you think fishers affect salmon populations?
4. How does the decline of salmon affect fishers?
5. What equipment would a fisher use?  (think about both a commercial fisher or a recreational fisher)

After research

6. How could fishers work with loggers, Northwest Coastal Native Americans, farmers, politicians and common citizens to help save salmon?
 
 
My personal experience with this exercise:

I don't eat fish.  I have only been fishing once, and I didn't catch anything.  I don't want to be a fisher.  I am a college student studying to be a writer.  So, it might seem like I couldn't possibly understand fully what it is like to be a fisher.  It might be difficult for me to understand what it would  be like  to depend on salmon for money, or to have an emotional attachment to the practice of bringing in the catch. However, the existence of salmon is important to me.  And I believe that as soon as we begin to compartmentalize ourselves, we lose connections to each other, which makes it more difficult to work together for our common good.

I spent a couple of weeks reading about and talking to fishers.  I talked to a former commercial fisherman.  He'd put together a collection of commercial fishing oral histories, which I read.  I talked to recreational fishers.  Then, at the end of those few weeks, I closed my eyes and imagined.  I had surrounded myself by words and pictures and people.  I had not gone fishing, but I had seen passion in the eyes of those who fish and I had felt it as I read their words.  I (a student, an environmentalist, a vegetarian) could feel a portion of what thousands of men and women have been feeling for the practice of fishing for a long time.  I wanted to share this with the group of kids that I'm working with at Lincoln Elementary, so I began to write them a story:

Fishing is not easy.  Some days, the seas are rough and the water is always wet.  There is not much time for a fisher to sleep because a fisher's day starts before the sun shows up and ends after the sun goes down.  Many people would not like the life of a fisher.  When I tell people that I am a fisher they give me a funny look.  When I tell them that fishing is my job they say, "There are easier jobs.  Why do you continue to do it?"  I tell them, "I can't help it.  Fishing is in my blood."  I try to tell them about the beautiful sound that rain makes slapping against my boat's cabin. And they say, "Yes, maybe the sound of the rain against your boat's cabin is beautiful, but there are easier jobs."  And then I tell them, "When I am working in my boat on the sea, that is when I feel most alive."

I started fishing when I was a young.  Some Friday nights in the summer, my father would say to me, "How 'bout some fishin' tomorrow?"  And I would always say, "Okay, pop."  Those Friday nights, before we would go fishing, sleeping was hard to do because of the excitement.  Sleeping was hard to do those Friday nights, because all I could think about was reeling in those flopping fish.  The second hand on my bedside clock moved slowly those nights, and morning seemed far away.

 Now I live in Alaska.  Now fishing is my job.  But for me it is more than a way to make money.  I love being at sea even when the waves are big and even when the skies are stormy.  I love my work even when my boat needs fixing.  I love it even when I have to wake up in the dark before the sun shows up.

 During the school year, I teach at a local high school.  This is a good job for a salmon fisher to have because teacher's get the summer off.  My fishing season starts in July and ends in the beginning of August.

 It is becoming harder to fish.  People are becoming more competitive.  To help save the salmon, we are given less time and space to fish.   Lately, too, more roads are being built.  This disturbs nature and also means that more tourists and recreational fishers are able to get to places that were untouched before.  We fishers have to be careful of how many fish we catch.  We have to let enough live so that we can go fishing next year.
 
 I took my son to watch the salmon struggling their way back up river yesterday.  I thought about all they'd gotten through to get back to their home.  I thought about all of the nets that they'd escaped, I thought about the dams and the chemicals that they'd survived.  I felt connected to these fish in a way that I haven't with any other animal.  I felt a connection to their struggle upstream.  I tried to absorb their beauty and grace.

 It is about time for me to stop fishing.  My bones are getting old and my hands don't grip as well.  When I began fishing, I thought that I would pass the work down to my son.  He, too, loves being at sea, but with all of the restrictions and competition, it isn't the same as it was when I began.  Fishers are angry at other fishers for taking up space.

 In my dreams, though, I will always fish.  On my way to sleep sometimes, my bed feels like it is rocking the way my boat does smashing against the waves.  On my way to sleep, I can hear that beautiful sound that the rain makes against my boats cabin.  Fishing will always be with me.  It is in my blood.

I intended to use the practice of writing this story in two ways:  I wanted to share it with the group of children that I am working with at Lincoln Elementary, and I wanted to get myself in the mind of a fisher. It is not sponged with facts.  Another person might relate to the information differently.  The research and the writing made me feel empathy for the fishers' position.  And as I read these words to the children, their eyes sparkled with imaginings.
 

 graphic two kids with backs turned to camera
Sam Calhoon and Franklin Kline relaxing after sharing their fisher skit.