We were fortunate to be on hand in Cordova for the early part of the Copper River salmon run. This is a highly specialized fishery in that it takes place in the shallow water of the Salmon River delta. If the breeze is up, the waves are short and steep, with the boats often operating in just a few feet of water.

The atmosphere on the docks is much like it is during a big regatta. There is a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air.

Most of the boats are operated by a single person.

The gill nets – 900 feet long – are set off the bow.

A hydraulic reel winch winds in the net, while the operator removes the salmon and drops them into a fabric basket. Water temperature is in the low to mid 40s (5 to 8C); air temperature is often the same.

Fishing tenders, representing the various packers, stand by to purchase the fish, and supply the fishermen (and a few fisherwomen) with fuel, water, and occasionally groceries.

That brown bag being lifted off the Watchman is full of salmon.

Alaskan fishermen have been in the forefront of conservation for years. They work closely with State and Federal officials to make sure their resources are not overfished. The Copper River fishery is regulated so enough salmon make it past the nets to lay their eggs up river.

Net length, depth, mesh size, and how close nets are set from one another are controlled to make sure plenty of fish get through. At the "Million Dollar Bridge" there are sonar units aimed into the river to count the salmon making it this far. From this they can calculate when to allow "openings" – periods usually of 12 hours – during which nets are allowed to be set.

A limited number of licenses are issued for working this fishery. If you don’t have one, the only way to get into the business is to buy someone else’s license.

In between openings the fishermen are busy mending their nets, and doing all of the usual maintenance projects associated with boats. Unlike the shallow draft Copper River bow pickers, Jonathan S (above) is a traditional trawler. She will work deeper water salmon in the next week, then fish for halibut and other bottom fish later in the year.

Even a small tear in the seine net will allow large quantities of valuable fish to escape, so the entire net has to be checked on a periodic basis.

Many of the boats carry dogs.

Where Cordovan land-based dogs tend towards large, most of the boat dogs are of the smaller variety, and all were cute.

Fishermen are notoriously tight with their wallets. Most won’t spend on anything that doesn’t promise a good return. But a surprising number of the boats were adorned with art work.

This was one of our favorites.

We saw a surprising (to us) amount of cosmetic maintenance.

While the Copper River boats were all small and mostly single-handed, the seiners have crew aboard.

There were two problems with our stay in Cordova. First, we made lots of friends and do not want to leave. Second, now that we’ve been introduced to fresh Copper River salmon we’re not sure if we’ll ever be able to eat anything else. (However, Southeastern Alaskans say their salmon are better than the Copper River variety. We’ll test this shortly and report our findings.)

To reach their spawning grounds Copper River salmon have to swim hundreds of miles up the river, most of which is under ice. As a result, their bodies are loaded with oil – which they burn as energy during this journey. It is this oil (theoretically other salmon do not have oil in such abundance) which gives them their distinctive taste. As these are the first salmon catch of the season, demand for the fish is high – which leads to good prices for our friends in Cordova.