The Sitka Maritime Heritage Society’s 2019 annual meeting on Wednesday, March 6, has the theme “The Slime Line: Stories of Loading, Processing, and Packing Fish.”
The program will continue the format of the past several years, of live oral history, a panel of Sitkans sharing their stories about a particular aspect of maritime heritage, in this case, the seafood processing industry.
The second half of the program is open to questions and stories from the audience. Organizers say they are hoping long-time workers too shy to be on the panel will be able to share their stories from the floor. This year, as in recent years, fisherman Eric Jordan will head the panel.
This year’s panelists are Nathan Bernhardt, Dave Thomas, Linda Waller, Dan Newman and brother Dave Newman, and Beth Short. Dave Thomas will demonstrate how to fillet a fish, and the process will be projected onto an overhead screen, with Eric Jordan providing a play-by-play description of the technique.
The “slime line,” or processing of raw fish coming down a conveyor belt, is traditionally the base level of work at a processing plant, a way for students to pay for college, often the first job for immigrants. In the past, processing was one of a limited number of occupations available to women. Some work in plants takes a great deal of skill - such as filleting, or the ballet of keeping fish moving at busy times.
‘‘Fish processing plant work is unique – it combines working with fish and with fishermen, a lot of interaction by the crew,’’ Jordan said. ‘‘We should have stories of interacting with each other, of getting slammed (with fish at peak season), unique stories of the atmosphere working at a plant – it’s slimy, scaley, a lot of time you have long hours. The people who continue to do it like the rhythm of it, the excitement of it, and as a fisherman, I appreciate them so much.”
The event will be filmed for the SMHS oral history collection. It includes videos of earlier meetings and highlights on its YouTube channel, accessible from the SMHS website, sitkamaritime.org. Recent additions include audio interviews with Glenn Howard from 2009 and 2016 about boat building by himself and his father, and a video interview of his wife Liz Howard, from 2018.
The mission of the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society, founded in 1999, is to preserve and to educate the public about Sitka’s maritime heritage. The main project is currently to complete the Japonski Island Boathouse as a working maritime heritage center, with exhibits, hands-on activities, classes and boat repair. A capital campaign will be launched later in March to raise the estimated $750,000 for completion of the historic rehabilitation of the Japonski Island Boathouse for this purpose.
The SMHS is working to install the first-ever exhibit in the eastern wing of the Boathouse. At the meeting there will be drafts of potential exhibit layouts, and the results of an online survey and comments about what the exhibit should be.
Historic photographs of processing plants and workers will be on display, as well as large-scale photographs by Jana Suchy from the late 1980s. Some of Jana Suchy’s prints will be available for sale, as will T-shirts and caps.
Coffee, tea and snacks, that will include salmon spread and pilot bread, will be provided. Doors open at 6, with the program from 7 to 9 p.m. at the ANB Founders Hall. Admission is free. For more information, go to www.sitkamaritime.org, or call 738-7448.
