Well work is in full swing of our busy season, our annual wild Arctic char harvest. I love this time of year not only because it is busy but I love meeting up with our fishers, monitors & the DFO biologists. Our fishers headed out a little over a week ago and on Tuesday I had the pleasure again this year to fly out to Surrey with one of our long time employees Alice Keyok. We like to fly out to each camp to check on the living conditions of our fishers and to make sure they are ok and not needing anything. We have daily contact with them through the satellite phones but it's still good to actually see each camp up close and personal.
So Tuesday around noon Alice and I headed down to the float base to catch our plane. The mosquitos have been out in full force and I was so glad when we took off and flew above these nasty bugs. The flight was great and I can never get enough of the scenery of the Arctic. There is still a lot of ice on the lakes and ocean and we did see many seals on the ice on the way back home. Here's some pics of when we fly out to Surrey River.
The dark blue house just off centre to the right is our home
You can see how close we are to the ocean
The long blue building with the yellow cube van is where I work
The ice is starting to melt
Cool ice pattern on Wellington Bay
Surrey River fish camp and if you look closely you can see the fishers
out on the boat and their nets (bottom left)
We were treated with great hospitality but Les and JS from DFO, our fishers had to get back to work as the plane was dropping off 1400lbs of Arctic char back to Cambridge Bay and then coming back for another load. Alice and I spent the afternoon at the camp and enjoyed every minute of it.
The Surrey River fish camp
Our fishers loading up the Arctic char
The Surrey Crew, from left to right
Brent, Jack, myself, Nathan, Paul, his wife and daughter
fish monitor Allan and Alice
The DFO crew - Les, JS (look at his fancy shoes) and Darcy
I had a few minutes before we left to photgraph some of the area - the shoreline is covered with sand, shells and rocks. Here are a few shots of Surrey River.
Alice and I said our good-byes and jumped on the float plane and headed back home. It was a fabulous day spent with our fishers, monitors and my DFO buddies. Our next harvest will be mid-August when a team will head over to 30 Mile, my personal favorite fishing camp. Here are some pics from on the way home.
Large ice crack
God's Country from the plane
This is my 'hood'
We are the final street on the right, can't see our home good but
you can see how close we are to the water
The Stone Church - across the bay
Taking off the char from the plane, it will be brought to the plant, final cleaning,
boxed and shipped to places in Canada and USA
Like I said the mosquitos have been out in full force this past week and we have been experience ugly weather since Thursday where winds were reaching 80kms + winds and raining. Today the sun is trying it's hardest to come out but the clouds are winning. Before the bad weather we took the dogs to our secret spot for a run and also to the beach again.
The land is so beautifully covered with flowers
That's not dust on my lens but mosquitos
Blitz thought he was smart when he jump from the shore to the ice on the pond
Handsome among flowers
It was low tide this evening at Long Point
Still 24 hour daylight
So many Arctic loons this evening - they didn't know which way to look
For my dog friends: this is my version of Bird Dog
Poor Blitz I told him to stay while I took his picture
Panoramic of Long Point
Talk soon!
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