You Can Have Your Salmon and Eat it Too

Whether gaffed or gill netted, the search goes on for these nutritious fellows

myth held in common among many

I/J Northwest Indian tribes explains that salmon are really people who live in ^ magical villages under the sea. At different times ofthe year the salmon transform themselves into fish and swim up the rivers in order to be caught. This is a voluntary sacrifice for which the Indians are thankful; they must return the bones ofthe salmon they eat to the sea, so that the salmon may become people again. To Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are much more than food; they are imbued with sacred spiritual and cultural nourishment.

To catch this nutritious food, the Indians employed a wide variety ofingenious methods. Low stone walls were built that trapped salmon on the beach as the tide receded. Traps were laid in the rivers to catch salmon returning to spawn. These traps were often used in conjunction with weirs (fences impassable to fish) to fimnel fish to the desired location. Salmon were netted with reef nets, drag nets, beach seines and gill nets. They were gaffed, hooked, and harpooned.

Today, commercial and sport fishers use techniques to catch salmon that have not fundamentally changed. However, commercial fishers must now bring in far more fish to make a profit, and the most efficient way to fish for salmon is with purse seine boats. These boats have four to eight person crews. They fish along shore, and set a circular net around a school offish, often with the help ofa small boat carried on the back ofthe ship. Then the net is drawn

Illustrations by Erich Raudebaugh

tight with a line, as with a purse and purse-string. The net is hauled aboard with a power winch mounted on a boom, or reeled around a large powered drum. The fish are scooped up when they are close enough or are simply hauled aboard with the net.

Fish are also taken with gill netters and trolling ships, which have one or two person crews. Gill netters set a wide upright net, which the fish swim into and become entangled in. Different sizes of netting are used to catch particular species offish. A troller uses the tried and true fishing line, with which most people are familiar. However, a troller may have hundreds ofhooks per line, and a halfdozen lines or more as it plies through the water. Salmon products take many forms: from fresh to frozen, breaded, canned, smoked or as lox, plain salmon roe (eggs) or even salmon roe aged to the consistency ofa "cheese" made by Indians. All forms ofsalmon are good food. Salmon contains large amounts ofomegathree (a fatty acid), which greatly reduces cholesterol. It is high in protein and other important nutrients. There are enough nutrients in salmon, in fact, to have sustained coastal Indians through longwinters. Some Fraser River Indians took more than 60 percent oftheir calorie consumption from salmon, which, when we consider salmon's most enjoyable attribute, taste, it doesn't sound bad at all.