Nick Comes to Lunch

Dutch Harbor, Alaska

My nephew Nick came to lunch Tuesday. He's been up in Dutch Harbor for the last month on board the Fishing Vessel Nordic Fury. The Fury was operating as a tender, carrying fish from fishing vessels back to one of the three fish processing plants in Dutch Harbor. Something went wrong however, and there were three tenders and only one fishing boat, so Nordic wasn't seeing much action and eventually they sent the crew home.

F/V Nordic Fury

The Nordic Fury is 127 feet long and has three holds / fish tanks that can each hold 70 tons of fish. They fill the tanks with sea water which is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit and then chill it down to around 32 degrees. 

Fish Pump Diagram

The fish are transferred from the fishing vessel to the tender using a vacuum system with a ten inch diameter pipe. When they get back to port, the fish are transferred from the tender to the processing plant using a similar system that uses a 14 inch diameter pipe. The system at the fish plant can empty a hold in 30 minutes. Here's some photos of a fish pump installed on a fishing boat:

F/V Perfect C's with Fish Pump

Close up of fish pump

Fish Pump in Action

Near as I can tell, fish pumps work by alternately apply vacuum and pressure. They apply vacuum and atmospheric pressure pushes the fish and the water up the hose, past the check valve and into the tank. When the tank is full, they close off the vacuum and apply some pressure and the fish and the water flows out through another check valve and the exit pipe.

Nordic Fury Haulback
mel defaoite

Nick's crew were fishing for Pollock, most of which is turned into surimi, a seafood protean paste, and sent to Japan. Some of it is used to make artificial crab meat. 

Commercial Crab Species Spreadsheet

There are other boats up there that are crabbing (fishing for crab). A typical rig for a crabber will have a three inch diameter cable a couple of thousand feet long with a hundred crab pots attached to it. The pots are like seven feet in diameter and weigh a hundred pounds. They will lay the line along the top of an undersea ridge and the pots will lay on either side of the ridge. They were catching golden brown spider crabs, giant spindly things.

Fish processing plants in Dutch Harbor in the summer

Dutch Harbor is full of bald eagles, seals and eels. There are literally hundreds of bald eagles in the area. Walking on shore, heading into a strong wind, head down, he looks up and sees a bald eagle heading right for him. The seals swim in packs around the harbor hunting small fish. The water in the harbor freeze over and the seals would poke air holes in the thin ice. Nick caught a 30 pound fish while they were at anchor in the harbor by simply dropping a baited hook on a line into the water. He lowered the hook a hundred feet of so into the water and hooked a fish.