Sunday, April 22, 2007

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL REALLY STINKS

Hello Fishies!

That is the banner across the cover of this month’s Pacific Fishing Magazine. The page six article in their Department of Televised Abominations is titled: Television’s Bristol Bay special stinks (Or, you can take the cow out of the cowboy, but never the boy).

Quotes from a fisherman by the name of Fritz Johnson make up the bulk of the article. In it he states: “A better title of the show should have been Ass***** of the Sea. If the producers’ intent was to highlight the worst aspects of the 19th century commercial fishery, they succeeded.”

The editors of the magazine go on to agree with Johnson and describe it so: A few dozen boats play bump-and-grind while crowding the Naknek river line. Instead of skill, these skippers rely on intimidation and blunt instruments (their boats) to set as close to the line as possible, without drifting over it.

All you need, according to National Geographic, is a big boat and a loud voice.

The writer is upset that you were not shown things such as setting at the right time in the right place, carefully calculating wind, tide and time. Johnson says “They ignored the universe of issues surrounding sustainability, the environment, and Alaskan fishing cultures in favor of a myopic, egomaniacal, and greed-driven view of the industry.”

I both agree and respectfully disagree. What NG showed you was, in fact, what goes on not only out on the line, but all the way up and down the river. NG focused on the most dramatic portions that they could as we all know that is what sells.

Been there, seen that.

Stay tuned!

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