Excerpted From Alaska Department of Fish and Game Technical Paper No. 113, October 1984

GEOGRAPHIC AREAS USED FOR HARVESTING HERRING

The villages of Tununak and Toksook Bay are the most advantageously located to harvest herring. Herring are abundant near the villages, and people do not have to set up camps at remote locations during herring season to harvest, process, and dry their catches. In most years, Tununak residents prefer to set their nets off Chinit Point because it is close to the village, but they also use Cape Vancouver if herring are not abundant at Chinit Point. Toksook Bay residents set their nets off the coast west of the village, or at the shallow waters at the mouth of Toksook River. Some Toksook Bay residents may join relatives from Nightmute during herring season at Umkumiut.

Some residents of Newtok go to Tununak, Toksook Bay, or Umkumiut to help relatives in those villages harvest and process herring, returning to Newtok after the herring season with some dried herring to use themselves throughout the year (cf. Fienup-Riordan 1982, 1983). Newtok residents have traditionally traveled about 30 miles to set up spring camp at Niliklugak about 8 miles northeast of Tununak. They reported that 1978 was the first year in about ten years that they had gone to Niliklugak to harvest herring due to ice and weather conditions that prevented travel by boat (Hemming et al. 1978). At this time, it is not known whether they have continued to establish herring camp at Niliklugak since 1978.

Nightmute residents commonly catch herring in two different locations. Some Nightmute residents move for spring camp at Umkumiut. Their nets are set from the point just west of Umkumiut along the coast to Uluruk. Another option for some Nightmute people is to stay with relatives at Toksook Bay during herring season to harvest herring from areas used by Toksook Bay residents (Fienup-Riordan 1983).

Mekoryuk residents commonly take herring from areas between Shoal Bay and Cape Corwin (Stickney 1982:field notes). Harvesting areas of Mekoryuk residents vary from year to year depending upon several factors, and Mekoryuk residents are not noted as harvesting as much herring as Tununak and Toksook Bay residents (Lantis 1946). Perhaps this is due in part to the higher unpredictability of finding numbers of herring to harvest near Mekoryuk since most spawning takes place along the southeastern shore of Nunivak Island (Lantis 1946; Stickney 1982:field notes; Alaska Department of Fish and Game Proposal 83) with sporadic spawning around the rest of the island (Stickney 1982:field notes). Additionally, Mekoryuk residents are known to hunt and harvest more walrus in spring than Tununak and Toksook Bay residents, and spring walrus hunt most often occurs concurrently with the time when herring are passing through the area. In some years, the presence of ice on the northern shore of Nunivak Island hampers harvesting herring in Shoal Bay and off Cape Etolin so residents of Mekoryuk may go to the eastern side of the island (Stickney 1982:field notes). Herring harvesting off the eastern and southern sides of the island sometimes occur in conjunction with spring sea-mammal hunting and cod and halibut jigging trips (Stickney 1982:field notes).,

As mentioned above, residents of the communities of Chefornak, Kipnuk Kwigillingok, and Kongiganak began harvesting herring from areas near their villages fairly recently (Hemming et al. 1978; Stickney 1984). These areas may be undergoing recent shifts or expansion with increased familiarity and knowledge of herring movements in these areas. According to the last published account in 1978, Chefornak residents set nets for herring just south of the mouth of the Kinia River (Hemming et al. 1978). Residents of Kipnuk place their nets south of the Kuguklik River mouth between Kigegtak and Pingurbek Islands and at the southern end of Pingurbek Island (Hemming et al. 1978; Stickney 1984). Some Kwigillingok residents also drift for herring in the waters on either end of Pingurbek Island; but, the mouth of Kwigillingok River is more commonly used by Kwigillingok residents because of its proximity to the settlement (Stickney 1984). As no herring appeared near Kongiganak in 1978, residents of that community reported moving to Kwigillingok during herring season to harvest herring from areas used by Kwigillingok people with nets borrowed from relatives and friends at Kwigillingok (Hemming et al. 1978). However, herring are described as moving south along the coast and have appeared near Kongiganak (Stickney 1984). That community may have since started harvesting herring from the mouth of the Kongignanohk River.

Herring Roe-On-Kelp

Harvesting herring roe-on-kelp (fucus sp.) occurs only around Nelson Island (Hemming et al. 1978) and around Nunivak Island. Areas from Chefornak to Kongiganak do not have kelp and herring spawn on eelgrass, if at all, in these areas. Usually, roe-on-kelp is gathered for subsistence in conjunction with setting or checking herring set nets. Roe-on-kelp is gathered from kelp beds on adjacent shores, or by walking to these areas during low tide.

METHODS OF HARVESTING AND PROCESSING

Herring are caught using gill nets with stretched mesh sizes ranging between 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches with depths of 6 to 8 feet. Most herring fishermen use nets between 18 to 75 feet long (Hemming et al. 1978) though nets up to 300 feet are used in Chefornak and Kipnuk (Hemming et al. 1978). Nets are set perpendicular to the shore with one end anchored to the shore. They are "picked" by shaking the herring off the net while the net is pulled over and across the boat. Drifting with gill nets for herring is another method used by Kwigillingok residents (Stickney 1984). Most vessels are locally made wooden skiffs, although some use aluminum boats. Both types range between 16 to 22 feet in length (cf. Hemming et al. 1978). . . .

Duration of harvesting activity varies from year to year ranging from a few days to several weeks. Ice presence and weather conditions affect time and length of harvest, as well as success in drying the herring caught. When offshore winds prevail during the herring run, herring stay away from rough coastal waters and are difficult to catch (Hemming et al. 1978; Fienup-Riordan 1983). Although onshore winds drive herring to the shore; if much ice is present, these winds can drive the ice to the shore, hampering harvesting activities. Consequently, when optimum conditions exist, people work around the clock to get all the herring they need, or all that the women can process in a reasonable amount of time without wasting herring through spoilage. Men usually the nets several times during high tide.

On Nelson Island, the first run is composed of "fatty" herring, which require more processing because a high oil content makes them more difficult to dry. Less fatty herring from later runs are more desirable because they are easier to dry.

Once the herring are caught, they are deposited in grass-lined pits near drying racks to age overnight or a few days, preferably until they are easier to gut, and the sac-row has hardened enough to come out clean and whole from the rest of the entrails. Women do most of the processing.

Fat herring are filleted and opened along the backbone; the sac-roe is set aside; entrails are removed and discarded, and each one is laid out on rocks, cardboard, or logs to allow some of the fat to seep out until they are braided. Herring processed in this manner are called ullipngayat (from ulligte-: to cut fish for drying, making cuts so air can reach all parts of the fish). Other herring are gutted by running the right thumb from under the gills down to the stomach; again, eggs are separated, and guts are discarded. All sac-roe from processed herring is laid out on flat dry surfaces (rock, log, cardboard, or plywood) to dry.

For air drying, herring are braided with grass (taperrnat) tightened under the gills into strings containing between 60 to 100 herring. The strings are hung on drying racks. Most drying racks consist of two posts about 6 to 7 feet high with a 12 to 15 foot log across the top; however, a few people have the older teepee style racks (Hemming et al. 1978). Each string of herring is turned every few days to facilitate drying, and the racks are covered with grass mats or Visqueen during rainy weather.

When dry, each herring is twisted and pulled from its head and stored in large loosely woven grass baskets that allow air to circulate. The strings of grass with the dried heads still attached are burned on the beach on a calm day. Some of the "fatty" or large herring are preserved in sealskin pokes with seal oil. Dried herring and sac-roe are eaten immediately and throughout the winter, dipped into seal oil. . . .