October 7, 2022 — Only 12 commercial fishing captains still hold permits to go reefnet fishing in the Pacific Northwest out of a fleet that once numbered in the hundreds. The distinctive fishing technique dates back thousands of years as an Indigenous method to catch salmon. Its practitioners today say the gear should proliferate as the preferred way to harvest healthy salmon runs while avoiding fragile stocks.
If you are among the minority of people who have seen the rare and eye-catching reefnet fishing contraptions on the water, you likely remember the sight. A spotter on a swaying tower, and often a second spotter watching underwater camera feeds, alerts the crew to quickly lift the net when they spy the flashes of a school of salmon entering the net strung between two pontoon barges. The small barges are anchored in front of a funnel of lines and ribbons facing the incoming tide — the artificial reef that gives reefnetting its name.
“It’s really an amazing thing this exists and the way it’s all done,” said Matthew King, who took a sabbatical from his Los Angeles-based job in commercial real estate development to join a reefnet crew for the summer. “It’s been a thrilling experience to say the least.”