The 3rd annual Fishermen Out Loud program went off as schduled April 16, 2010, at the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium in Kodiak. The all ages event featured original poems, stories and songs about Kodiak, fishing and the sea presented by seven talented fishermen / artists. Held in conjunction with the Kodiak Comfish fishing trade show, Fishermen Out Loud is Kodiak's public expression of an ancient tradition- going down to the sea in ships to pull a living from the sea, and coming back to tell the tale. Support came from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Fisherman of Alaska, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Island Seafoods, and individuals and businesses in the Kodiak community.
Moe Bowstern has been a commercial fisherwoman in Alaska since 1986. She lives in Portland, Oregon. She describes the lives of commercial fishermen in essays and songs, and has been a performer at the Fisher Poets Gathering in Oregon since it began in 1998. Moe is the founder and editor of “Xtra Tuff,” a literary ‘zine devoted to commercial fishermen and fisherwomen. She performs regularly across the country on stage and radio.
Jon Campbell is a prolific composer of contemporary Maritime Music based in New England. A multi-instrumentalist and reluctant singer, his songs address issues relevant to inhabitants of any of the four coasts- East, West, Gulf, Alaska. He has been a Rhode Island State Council of the Arts Folk Artist since 1982. He performed at Kodiak Out Loud in 2008.
Dan Crane has fished out of Homer, Alaska, for decades. He writes powerful stories and poems about the people who pull their livelihoods from the Gulf of Alaska. This is his first Fishermen Out Loud appearance.
Dave Densmore was born on Kodiak Island and has been a commercial fishermen in Alaska since he began fishing with his father as a young boy. Dave writes heartfelt poetry about the life of a commercial fisherman and performs regularly on stages and radio venues across the country.
Pat Dixon was a commercial fisherman in Cook Inlet for many years before retiring to Washington State in 2000. He writes stories about the fishing life and has appeared at many fishing related literary events on the Wesy Coast, including the Fisher Poets Gathering in Oregon, and the first Kodiak Out Loud show in 2008.
Erin Fristad is a writer, teacher, and fisherman from Port Townshend, Washington. She fished for many years in Southeast Alaska and is a regular at the Fisher Poets Gthering in Oregon. Erin participated in the first Kodiak Out Loud show in 2008.
Toby Sullivan is a commercial fisherman and writer from Kodiak, Alaska. A long time performer at the Fisr Poets event in Astoria, he has written extensively about the lives of commercial fishermen. His work has been published in numerous magazines and literary journals, as well as several anthologies, including “Out on the Deep Blue,” and “Salt in Our Veins.”
We Remember:
Images of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Kodiak Island
An exhibition of photographs and video of the spill taken by the people of Kodiak Island in the summer of 1989.
“We Remember: Images of The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill on Kodiak Island,” is an exhibition of still images and video to mark the 20th anniversary of the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill as it happened to the people of Kodiak. The project, begun in the fall of 2008, included collecting, digitizing and presenting images taken by ordinary people who lived through the spill on Kodiak Island.
The project also involved digitizing several hundred hours of VHS video tapes made at various public meetings in Kodiak in 1989. These video tapes, a unique record of an epochal event in Alaskan history, have been stored since the spill in a climate controlled room at Kodiak College Library, and are now also preserved in digital form on hard drives and DVD discs. We hope to present some of this video along with the still images at Kodiak Comfish in April.
The exhibit is not intended to be a complete visual record of the spill on Kodiak. Like all large historical events, the spill was too large for any one person to see or understand in its entirety and is perhaps even now too large an event for a small institution such as the Kodiak Maritime Museum to comprehensively address. However, aside from the newspaper images, which have their own documentary value, these pictures were taken by Kodiak residents as they dealt with the effects of an unequaled environmental and social disaster. As such, they provide a unique and infinitely valuable view of the spill.
Still images for the exhibit were contributed by Betsey Myrick, Robbie Hoedel, Roger Benney, Marion Owen, Suzanne Abraham, Sue Jeffery, Vern Booben, and Bobby Ivanof. Newspaper clippings are courtesy of the Kodiak Historical Society. Video images are courtesy of Kodiak College. Special thanks to Alf Pryor of Dead Humpy Productions for designing and produc ing the exhibit.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Harbor Gateway Design Project
Once funding is in place, the Harbor Gateway Project will transform Kodiak's St. Paul Harbor into a maritime museum without walls. There are three components to the project:
Archways and all-weather illustrated display maps orienting the visitor to downtown Kodiak and the harbor, and describing places nearby places of interest.
Transformation of an existing building near the harbor into the “Peggy Dyson ‘Voice of the North Pacific’ Interpretive Center.” An interactive display within the building will tell the story of Peggy Dyson, who broadcast marine weather forecasts and relayed messages to Alaskan mariners for 25 years. The Interpretive Center will also house displays describing the effect of weather on Alaskan mariners and the role of the U.S. Coast Guard in keeping them safe.
An open-air interpretive display of the historic salmon fishing vessel "Thelma C," mounted on dry land near the harbor. The boat was built in 1964 following the March 1964 earthquake and tsunami which destroyed much of Kodiak’s fishing fleet. The restored vessel and display will allow visitors a close-up examination of the vessel and the opportunity to learn how the crew lived and worked while catching caught salmon around Kodiak Island.
Voice of the North Pacific
“Hello all mariners, hello all mariners,
this is WBH-2-9 Kodiak”
— Peggy Dyson
Prior to the advent of satellite phones, fax machines and cell phones, Peggy Dyson broadcast the marine weather and personal messages to Alaska’s fishing fleet and other mariners in the North Pacific twice a day, every day for more than 20 years.
The Voice of the North Pacific exhibit about Peggy, the fishing fleet, the weather forecasters and the brave crews aboard Coast Guard rescue missions will give visitors a better understanding of what it is like to work and live at sea.
Hear Peggy “Calling all mariners” and telling stories of her radio days
Hear fishermen talk about life at sea
Watch a Coast Guard rescue mission
Listen to the latest marine weather forecast and watch a satellite image of weather fronts moving across the Gulf of Alaska
The Voice of the North Pacific exhibit in the harbor building at Shelikof Avenue and Marine Way will serve as a gateway to St. Paul Harbor and downtown Kodiak, a fitting legacy to Peggy Dyson, Alaska’s mariners, and the men and women who work to keep them safe.
SOS: Rescuing the F/V Thelma C
Every year several old wooden boats abandoned in the boat harbor end up as ashes on the beach, burned for unpaid moorage fees. But the F/V Marina D won't be one of them. Originally named the Thelma C, KMM rescued this salmon seiner from the burn pile and is restoring the boat to its original condition and name for display at St. Paul Harbor.
The 36-foot Thelma C was built in 1965 with federal relief funds following the Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the boat harbor and the waterfront of Kodiak and many other coastal communities including small Alaska native villages and the town of Valdez in Prince William Sound.
See the flying bridge where salty skippers steered the Thelma C 20 hours a day searching for summer’s prolific schools of salmon
Look in the tiny wheelhouse where four fishermen ate and slept every day for the three-month fishing season
Feel the Thelma C’s strong, wood hull that cut through the cold, rough seas of the North Pacific and kept the fishermen safe and warm
Read about the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the harbor and downtown Kodiak
The Thelma C, a classic wooden salmon seiner from Alaska’s world-renowned fishing fleet, will rest in a covered, outdoor exhibit overlooking St. Paul Harbor in downtown Kodiak.
