I lean over the rail, whispering sweet nothings to the salmon in the
water below. Hooked through the cheek, she stares at me with a turquoise
eye. I raise the baseball bat-like gaff with my right hand and promise
her, “This will be quick.” When I slam the gaff against her head, her
opal scales quiver faintly, then go still. I yank her out of her
universe, and into mine. A pool of crimson spreads on the deck. “Thank
you.”
My partner Joel glances over. “Nice one!” Like me, he grew up fishing. At 22, he became the captain of the Nerka,
his childhood summer home. We’ve run this 43-foot salmon troller
together for seven years, selling our catch to his father, who markets
our salmon to restaurants, grocery stores, and food co-ops around the
U.S.
Not to be confused with trawlers, which drag large nets across the
ocean floor, trollers are hook-and-line boats that target as close as
possible the intended catch with little harm to habitat.
