It combines fishing, it combines hunting,
and it combines a lot of athleticism.
To spearfish, a salmon is different than a lot of other saltwater fish.
They're very suspicious and they will dart
if they even see a shadow.
We spook them and they go somewhere and then they
hug certain features underwater and you get to like, see how they move
and then you can set yourself up for a better shot.
So this weekend we went out into Prince William Sound
to chase the sockeye run.
We are on the Bear Valley side of the Whittier Tunnel
waiting to cross into Whittier.
So the Whittier tunnel is a one-way system and so we have to wait
until all the cars coming this way and so we could go in the other direction.
On the taxi ride out, we stopped because we saw a dead baby humpback.
It’s sad.
It's a big animal.
Our water taxi, you know, it was his thought
that it could have been a cruise ship that hit it.
So we sort of have, you know, a lot of interplay of like recreators
and, you know, the tourism industry, which we want to support
and in the middle of all that are also sports fishermen like us.
And a small niche subset of sports fishermen
that are unusual to Alaska are spear fishermen.
I just think we got to go find out where they’re schooling
and hop in out of the kayak. Ok.
I can describe
spearfishing as probably the most challenging
and sometimes uncomfortable sport on purpose.
It's just so cool to see the underwater
landscape.
Alaska's beautiful.
You see the mountains and underwater is also pretty amazing.
And I don't think a lot of people get to see that.
And we get to target the fish.
So there are small fish and big fish and there's chum mixed in with the sockeye
so we can pick which fish to try and target.
So like it's fun on so many levels.
So I hold the world
record for silver salmon caught on a pole spear.
A pole spear is different than a spear gun.
It doesn't have a trigger, right?
It doesn't look like sort of a rifle.
It is a pole with a bungee on the end and you put the bungee on your hand
and you crank up the pole until you get about midway.
And then you can point it and release.
If a fish is hit through the brain, then they're instantly dead.
But if the fish is not dead,
you might have a struggle on your hands.
Woo!
Not the greatest shot...
right through the middle. But
she’ll do.
You know, if you told me nine years ago when I was in Hawaii
and doing a dinky tourist free diving spearfishing day, that nine years later
it would be like a really big sport
in my life, up here in Alaska, of all places, where it's freezing cold
and super dark and scary down there, I wouldn’t
have believed you.
My home life was very unusual
and nontraditional,
and I left home early in my teenage years
and chose to live out of my car
and crash at friends’ houses with their parents
until I graduated high school and went to college.
And I think early independence
sort of
paved the way for jumping into any hobbies or sports
that I was completely out of my element in because I've sort of always
felt completely out of my element in everything.
So it made no difference whether I was good at something or not
for me to try it.
The first time I ever caught a fish, I was five and it was a flounder
and it was in Russia where I'm originally from.
I was so scared as a five year old that I would lose this fish
because it was flopping around on the deck, that I laid down on top of it
to make sure that everybody saw that I was going to keep this fish
and I think that early
core childhood memory of a positive fishing experience
has led to my adult life now
where I still like to lay on top of fish.
I also like taking pictures of just smooching fish.
Nice, fresh one.
Yeah.
I think that expressing gratitude to the resources
that are here is really important.
Whether you're taking one fish or you are fishing on the land
of the Denaina people or other Indigenous communities
who have preserved this ecosystem to allow you to be on it
and be fruitful in your meat collection and fish collection, berry collection now.
So I think it's really important to recognize that,
you know, these resources are not just yours to take as much of as
you can, that they are something that is part of a larger cycle.