Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Festival to Celebrate Seafood, Fishermen

By BRIELLE SCHAEFFER
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Sitka Seafood Festival is back this year with more events than ever.
    The festival begins this Sunday with a special screening of “Jaws” at the Sitka Coliseum and continues with events such as a storytelling night, lectures and tours until the main festival day on Aug. 12 that will showcase vendors, food and games at Crescent Harbor Shelter.

Participants in the Sitka Seafood Festival’s annual tote race paddle across Crescent Harbor in 2015. (Sentinel File Photo)

    The focus of the festival is shifting from fish to fishermen, with its new hosts the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) and the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA).
    “Seafood is what we’re all about,” said Alyssa Russell, who works for both organizations. “As soon as we heard (the festival) was kind of up for grabs we wanted to do it.”
    The organizations also wanted to be sure to include fishermen and their voices in the festivities, she said. But, “the summer is not a good time for fishermen.”
    Russell is crossing her fingers the main festival day will fall during a troll closure so the fleet can join the celebration.
    The popular festival was started in 2009 by volunteers to promote wild Alaskan seafood, and it quickly grew. In 2012, it became its own nonprofit but organizers decided it would be best to take a hiatus in 2016.
    The festival this year will be both entertaining and educational, Russell said, with lots of activities by partner organizations such as Art Change, the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society, Sitka Film Society, the Sheldon Jackson Museum and Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
    “The festival has always been this really fun opportunity for people to celebrate seafood and be together,” she said. “We’re hoping people can learn something new about fisheries and fishermen that they didn’t already know.”
    Some highlights this year are “Wet Feet: Stories On, In, Under, and Of the Sea,” a storytelling night with Sitka Tells Tales at Beak Restaurant; a seafood trivia night at Mean Queen; a marine biology dock tour; a “wild fishermen’s triathlon” of tote races and other obstacles; a family-friendly ocean treasure hunt around the Japonski Island boathouse sponsored by the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society; and even fish skin sewing classes at Sheldon Jackson Museum.
    The main festival day, Aug. 12 at Crescent Harbor Shelter, will boast a beer garden, and food from Ashmo’s, Latitude 57, Reindeer Red Hots and other vendors.
    There also will be educational booths and kids’ games.
    There will be no highland games this year, as there have been in past years, but there will be a fishing tote race, Festival Coordinator Emma Edson said. It’s like a kayak race, but with contestants in plastic fish totes instead of kayaks.
    The festival will provide the totes, and the sign-up is on the day of the race.
    “It’ll start from one part of the harbor and go to the other,” Edson  said. “It’s pretty funny. You can’t go very far and it’s not exactly easy to paddle a tote.”
    Someone from search and rescue will be standing by in case there’s an accident, Edson said.
    Sign-up for vendors or informational booths will be open until Aug. 9 through SitkaSeafoodFestival.com or by calling 747-3400.
    To cap off the festival – and fishing season – organizers will hold a fishermen’s feast sometime in early November for the fleet at Centennial Hall, Russell said.
    All proceeds from the festival will go toward funding the Young Fishermen’s Initiative, which helps young Alaskans get into the industry with vessel financing, deck hand apprenticeship and policy programs, Russell said.
    “There’s been a graying of the fleet,” she said. “Fisheries are aging and young people aren’t able to take over for a number of reasons.”
    No matter what, Edson said, the festival is for a good cause.
    “We hope there’s a good turnout,” she said. “We hope the weather is nice. We want to bring the community together and celebrate sustainably caught seafood.”
Seafood Festival Schedule
Sunday Aug. 6
    – 12:30 p.m. Film Screening: “Jaws” at the Sitka Coliseum $5
Thursday, Aug. 10
    – 7 p.m. Sitka Tells Tales: “Wet Feet: Stories on, in, under, and of the sea” at Beak
Friday, Aug. 11
    – 7 p.m. Seafood trivia at the Mean Queen
Saturday, Aug. 12
    – 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Seafood Festival Day: games, booths and food at Crescent Harbor Shelter
    – 2 p.m. Inupiaq Mask Carver Erin Katherine Gingrich lecture at Sheldon Jackson Museum
Monday, Aug. 14
    – 7 p.m. “The Salmon Forest” Film Screening at the Mean Queen
Thursday, Aug. 17
    – 5 p.m. Seafood documentary at Sitka Coliseum
Friday, Aug. 18
    – 7 p.m. “Coming to America: Invasive Species, Ocean Rafting, and Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris” lecture at Sitka Sound Science Center
Saturday, Aug. 19
    – 10 a.m. Walk about the docks: a marine biology tour
    – Noon Ocean treasures family day at Japonski Island Boat House
Aug. 22 - 30
    – Fish Skin Sewing Class at Sheldon Jackson Museum