THE ALASKA FISHERMEN'S MUSEUM

Throwbacks to a Golden Age of Northwest Boats

There are few regions and few industries as mutually-dependent as Southeast Alaska and salmon. In the remote Alaska panhandle, pristine habitat and remarkably successful conservation efforts have produced an enormous wild salmon resource that promises to sustain jobs and nourish consumers for generations to come. Each summer, sleepy Southeast Alaska villages like Ketchikan, Petersburg and Sitka are transformed into throbbing industrial arenas where tens of thousands of men and women toil in the harvesting, processing, distribution and support sectors of the salmon industry. This thirty minute documentary videotape takes you aboard the boats, into the processing plants and around the communities where the business of salmon is a way of life.

In Seattle in 1911, the fishing vessel Tordenskjold slid down the ways at a little shipyard in the Scandinavian community of Ballard. Of all the events that transpired 100 years ago, the Tordenskjold is one that endures. Remarkably, as she celebrates her centennial, she is neither relic nor museum piece. The Tordenskjold leads a small fleet of hard working commercial fishing schooners that compete head to head with modern boats on the Alaska fishing grounds. Now, a 30-minute PBS style documentary celebrates the old schooners and their extraordinary history. Produced by John Sabella, the program is sponsored by the nearly 100-year-old organizations that represent the halibut schooners and their deckhands: the Fishing Vessel Owners Association and Deep Sea Fisherman's Union of the Pacific.

VIGNETTES

Alaska's Silver Millions

Westward in the 20th Century

The Atlas Imperial

Bill Garden's Workshop At Toad's Landing, B.C.

This documentary videotape brings to life a fascinating era in the history of commercial fishing at the last frontier. Featuring film footage dating back to 1926 narrated by industry pioneer Stan Tarrant, The Great Age of Salmon and the PAF is the story of the early fishing industry in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and of the Pacific American Fisheries company of Bellingham. Sail to Alaska aboard a windjammer! Fish salmon aboard the Bristol Bay sailboats that operated at the mercy of wind and tide! Climb aboard a fish trap! This is a program history buffs, maritime enthusiasts and fishermen will definitely want to add to their collections. Thirty minutes.

This is the story of fishing pioneers in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and of the most efficient and controversial type of fishing gear ever devised, the trap. Listen to the last of the trap men as they tell their tales. Watch historic film footage of the traps that proliferated throughout Puget Sound and Alaska waters. Step inside the tiny shacks where trap watchmen contended with the ever-changing moods of the sea and the lurking presence of the fish pirates. Marvel at the bygone age. Produced in conjunction with the Whatcom County Parks Museum at Semiahmoo. Thirty minutes.

Pacific halibut... Of all the Northwest and Alaska fisheries, this one has the most tradition, the greatest mystique. Like few modern professions, it is an enterprise steeped in its own history. Halibut fishing along the North Pacific Coast began more than one hundred years ago, when the schooners Oscar and Hattie, Edward E. Webster and Molly Adams sailed 'round the horn from Massachusetts in search of the bounty of the last frontier. Amazingly, vessels built near the Turn of the Century remain viable competitors in the contemporary race for profits, and the fishing style, called longlining, is little changed since its inception more than fifty years ago. Now, hear the story from the lips of the longline pioneers. Thirty minutes.