Anchorage Daily News

Recycling old fishing nets begins this summer at several Alaska fishing ports.

Naknek, Dillingham, Petersburg and Cordova received funding via the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission for two years to jump-start net recycling projects. The pool of money comes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which has committed $2 million to the "Fishing for Energy" program over the next five years.

"The goal is to find an alternative use for these mountains of web that otherwise go in our landfills," said Kristin Smith, director of the Copper River Watershed Project, one of many recycling project partners in Cordova.

Each community is hiring a net recycling coordinator, whose first task will be to set up convenient net drop-off areas near local harbors. The old fishing nets will be barged to a salvage company in Washington state, where they will be converted to pelletized plastics and sold in Asia.

An attempt to recycle nets in Cordova in 1991 tanked due to the high shipping costs, but the town is getting an assist this go-round.

"Alaska Marine Lines has agreed to contribute shipping and they are a key to the whole process," Smith said.

"Fishing for Energy" projects began two years ago in New England. In just one year, more than 80,000 pounds of old nets, buoys, pots and other derelict gear were collected and converted into energy. That pales in comparison to the port of Dutch Harbor, for example, which has roughly 20 million pounds of old nets in its landfill.

Get this -- energy experts say that just 1 ton of old fishing nets converts into enough electricity to power one home for 25 days!

Meanwhile, as Alaska's recycling projects ramp up, Cordovans have already put old fishing nets to good use. The Watershed Project uses them to help surface a scenic 1,100-foot trail on the Cordova breakwater that is made up of big boulders, called riprap. Instead of paying for costly shot rock, the group uses gillnet web.

"We have a big pile of gillnet web and we hack it into pieces and stuff it down inside the big riprap and fill in the bottom part of the trail. Then we can put 12-inch rock on top of that, and then gravel is used for the final walking surface," Smith said, adding that Cordova also uses old nets at its ski hill.

"In the summer it's just a pile of nets, but in the winter when it's covered with snow, it helps form a ramp that people can ski off of. You don't have to buy fill or do a lot of earth-moving to make that kind of a ramp."

Big boat on display

A new maritime history exhibit called "On the Water" opened this weekend at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It features a model of the largest U.S. fishing vessel, the 376-foot catcher-processor Alaska Ocean. The 4-foot cutaway shows a cross-section of the wheelhouse, factory decks, crew staterooms, galley and cold-storage hold. A video produced by the History Channel shows the vessel in operation.

The Alaska Ocean, which carries a crew of 125 and works the Bering Sea pollock fishery, is owned by Glacier Fish Co. and the Norton Sound Economic Development Corp., representing 15 western Alaska coastal communities. The vessel catches and processes fish, and it is equipped to make fish meal from inedible portions and produce fish oil to create heat and power for the boat. The At-Sea Processors Association donated the model to the Smithsonian.

Tell me a story

Social scientists are gathering oral histories across the country as a way to preserve the culture of fishing communities. Fishermen, processors, boat builders, businesses, managers, scientists -- anyone with a fishing story can contribute.

A handbook called "Voices from the Fisheries" offers tips on gathering oral histories, said Susan Abbott-Jamieson, a NOAA social scientist and co-author of the handbook for audio, video or written interviews. (www.voices.noaa.gov)

When the oral histories are completed, they can be uploaded to a NOAA database that serves as a repository for America's fishing stories.

Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Her Fish Radio programs can be heard on stations around the state. Her information column appears every other Sunday. This material is protected by copyright. For information on reprinting or placing on your Web site or newsletter, contact msfish@alaska.com.

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