In Kiana, netting fish and strengthening a subsistence lifestyle

KIANA — Noah Wells, 65, grew up in the 1960s, a time when nearly every family set up white wall tents and drying racks on the beach in Kiana during fishing season. Families partnered up and seined for whitefish, sheefish and chum salmon. It was before running water and electricity and before four-wheelers became transportation.

Kids like Wells would play all day, pack water, gather wood, scale fish and hang them to dry.

Today, Wells is a Fish and Wildlife technician II for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He and fellow technician Janice Densham, called the "Fish Lady" in Kiana, set a driftnet downstream on the Kobuk River three times a day at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.

They drift exactly 20 minutes and then pull in the net. Catches range from a few fish to as many as 160 in the bumper year of 2014.

Sometimes the net gets hung up on what Densham calls "underwater monsters" like the snowmachine chassis they pulled up one year. They've also pulled up 55-gallon drums, caribou antlers and even a Red Rocket sled one time. Usually, tree limbs are what hangs up, ripping holes in the net.

In fact, net mending got Densham the job in the first place.

Originally from England, Densham came to Alaska in 1989 to visit friends in Homer. She liked the people and the lifestyle, and decided to stay.

A stint learning how to mend nets in Homer's "seine alley" qualified her for a fish-counting job.

"I didn't know anything about fish, but knowing how to mend nets was a valuable asset," Densham said. She worked in the Yukon River villages of Emmonak, Pilot Station and Eagle during the summers of 1991-93. Then, thinking she needed a new trade, she moved to Fairbanks and took a course in heavy-equipment mechanics and welding. She retired in 2010 after 17 years working on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and has been coming to Kiana every year since.

"This is my retirement job," she said.

The twofold purpose of Wells' and Densham's five-to-six-week job is to count how many chum salmon escape Kotzebue's commercial fishery, and to count and test sheefish. The data goes to Jim Menard, area manager for Fish and Game in Nome.

"We had three amazing years in a row, and while this year seems to be down in numbers, it really is only average," Menard said.

Menard doesn't worry about the health of the commercial fishery because there is only one buyer, Copper River Seafoods, and because it can only handle so much fish.

Only a few families in Kiana seine today, and the fish-testing program has become a service for the village. Anyone who needs fish is welcome to the catch.

Munick Chappel has a full-time job for NANA Regional Corp. and little time for fishing. Part of her job is to promote healthy cultural activities and she has been organizing events to encourage more people to use sheefish and salmon to feed their families. Chappel believes that when residents gathered subsistence foods in the past, they were leaner, more active and consumed healthier food.

This week, using fish from the testing program, she has cut, dried and smoked the salmon. And she has invited anyone — particularly youth — to learn how to jar the fish.

"I work during the day, so it really helps my family to get fish from Janice and Noah. We had help cutting poles and making a set of racks. Several of us got together to cut up the fish at the beach and now we're learning how to put it up in jars," Chappel said.

"People stopped using our fish, so the younger generation hasn't learned how to prepare it for winter. And they depend on state assistance more than ever. Everyone has forgotten we have subsistence foods we can use. It's the healthiest food. And it's free."

Wells provides river-to-home delivery, especially for elders. In 2014, there were so many chum on the Kobuk that Wells and others were boxing up fish and sending them to friends and family in villages like Selawik that don't catch chum. Ravn Air and Bering Air helped by delivering fish for free to other villages.

By 9:15 p.m. on the Kobuk River, the Arctic sun shines golden. An owl flies by with what looks like a mouse in its beak. A resident immature eagle sits on the far shore. Wells and Densham pull in the 300-foot net, she working the lead line, and Wells carefully arranging the cork line so it will be easy to let out in the next set. They don't need to talk.

"Noah is a perfect partner. He knows what is going to happen before it happens. He does his thing, I do mine," Densham said.

"I've fished all my life. When I'm not fishing for Fish and Game, I'm fishing rod and reel on the beach," Wells said.

The job may seem repetitive, considering that they fish from the same place at the same time every day, but Densham says every day is different.

"My favorite thing is the wildlife. In the evening we see porcupines and bears. We even like watching the gulls fight over the scraps we throw out. The cranes just arrived and as it starts getting cooler, we will see the season change to autumn. I love that," Densham said.

"Some days are so beautiful I say to Noah, 'Can you believe they pay us for this?' "

Robin Kornfield is from Kiana, where her family has operated Blankenship Trading Post since 1935. Kornfield is executive director of Nordic Journeys, the nonprofit that brings cross-country skiing to rural Alaska through NANANordic and Skiku.