Living in Alaska, especially in a remote place like Nome, means people commonly make use of the subsistence resources that the region has to offer. Now that we have lived here for more than a year, I was able to invest in crabbing myself. This is something that I was excitedly exposed to last year, but only on two occasions was I able to go out to help others check their pots. This past summer, upon cleaning out the church garage, Pastor Charley found two old crab pots wedged in the rafters. One was quickly nabbed by someone else. The second, however was up for grabs, so I claimed it. It's an old wooden framed crab pot with metal mesh walls and weights in the corners to help it sink. It didn't have all the necessary pieces required on a legal crab pot, so I had to upgrade it a bit. The only piece that was required to make it a legal pot was a biodegradable escape hatch, in case the pot was lost and washed away. Pictured below, there is a zig zag line of white cotton string threaded through the mesh to keep it shut. Step two was collecting bait. Crab are typically baited with small white fish, called Tom Cod. Tom Cod are fished through holes in the ice and while they can be fried and eaten; they work the best as dog food or bait in my opinion. Not having an ice auger or giant chainsaw of my own, I've only had a few opportunities to fish for these and didn't catch many. After a week or two of checking the crab pot and replenishing the bait, I was out of those. Then came the collections of freezer burnt meats that senior center had discarded. Chicken scraps, pork chops, moose ribs, and anything else I could get my hands on. Some seem to work better than others, but there isn't much of a pattern to it yet.
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| There's Nome in the background. I'm about 1/2 mile out on the Bering Sea. |
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| Check out my sweet ride |
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| Zoey helping to uncover the hole |
I had already worked it out with a friend that we would work together to have this crab pot. I would gather all the pieces to make it legal and usable, and he would use his snow mobile and sled to get us to and from the pot regularly. The last thing we needed was a way to cut through the ice. Thankfully another friend, whom I work with, mentioned his plan to go out and check his own pots, so he offered to cut a hole for us in exchange for my help with his. The picture above shows our pot, about 1/2 mile off the coast of the east side of town. The ice averages about 24" thick, however many people have come across spots that were much thicker, making a crab pot difficult to put in. We used a chainsaw for this hole. The last few weeks have been cold. Really cold. It was hitting in the low ranges of -20ยบ regularly for about two weeks and has been intermittenly that way for a while now. Thankfully, we have had a few days of warm and sunny here and there to break up the difficult weather.
This really cold weather is obviously a necessary part of crabbing. It needs to be cold enough to freeze the ocean before you can go drive on it, but it has been extremely cold. Cold enough that our hole has been frozen shut nearly every time I've gone out to check it, which is about every three days or so. It's the most labor intensive hobby that I've had. It is, however, rewarding and delicious!
I had already worked it out with a friend that we would work together to have this crab pot. I would gather all the pieces to make it legal and usable, and he would use his snow mobile and sled to get us to and from the pot regularly. The last thing we needed was a way to cut through the ice. Thankfully another friend, whom I work with, mentioned his plan to go out and check his own pots, so he offered to cut a hole for us in exchange for my help with his. The picture above shows our pot, about 1/2 mile off the coast of the east side of town. The ice averages about 24" thick, however many people have come across spots that were much thicker, making a crab pot difficult to put in. We used a chainsaw for this hole. The last few weeks have been cold. Really cold. It was hitting in the low ranges of -20ยบ regularly for about two weeks and has been intermittenly that way for a while now. Thankfully, we have had a few days of warm and sunny here and there to break up the difficult weather.