A millennia-old subsistence fishery replenishes the spirit, and the freezer
Herring season in Sitka is a study in contrasts. Each spring for the last 45 years, large seiners land tons of herring, whose egg sacs are stripped and sold as a delicacy on the international market, often for millions. But the frenzy and money around the commercial sac roe fishery overshadows a far quieter Indigenous fishing tradition that’s taken place for millennia. KCAW recently accompanied a pair of subsistence harvesters, in search of one of Sitka Sound’s most valued food resources – herring eggs-on-hemlock branches.
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