November 6, 2025 — This International Fisherwomen’s Day, I’m celebrating the origin of set netting in Bristol Bay — born of women’s ingenuity and their unique experiences in fisheries.
I was taken out to our set net site to experience the work of fishing long before I was old enough to officially join my family in it. Around the age of five, I remember sitting with my great-grandfather in a small plastic dinghy, just big enough to hold us and the salmon my family was picking from our gillnet. He pulled us along the anchor line of our set net site on a sunny day with gentle water. My family waded nearby, passing salmon from the net to the boat to keep them contained. I felt the power of the fish still alive as they thrashed against the air and my rain gear. Other times, I would clumsily try to walk in the mud uncovered as the tide receded — and would often walk right out of my boots.
By age 10, I was deemed ready to work alongside my family tending our fishing sites — the same age my sisters and our mother had started. Our “Young Grandma” Anisha fished a site until she retired, and our great-grandmother, Anna Chukan — whom we lovingly called Umma — did too.