CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 18 Made in America: Part III | Page 110

W W W. C R A F T BY U M H . C O M
out of the brief harvesting windows ahead.
Spring
Known as the Tongass, Southeast Alaska is the territory of the Tlingit, Haida,
and Tsimshian peoples who have lived among its countless islands and es-
tuaries for thousands of years. One of the last wild salmon strongholds, this
coastal rainforest flourishes with seasonal abundance. When frost and snow
recedes life explodes in a flurry that awakens hibernating bears, calls hump-
back whales back from Hawaii, and sets the table for all.

In May the snow still blankets the top half of the mountains, and the Barnacle
crew is out on the water searching for early season kelp beds. Sunshine shim-
mers in the glassy seas ahead of the FV Dial West. The boat's 30-foot alumi-
num hull chugs along slowly at 6.7 knots to the steady hum of the diesel en-
gine. The kelp beds of Peril Strait await, 15 hours south.
We pass the time studying the shore and competing to see how many brown
bears we can spot. The bears are hungry and gorging on fresh spring greens
above the high tide line. “That’s a rock.” — “It’s definitely a bear, look! Behind
the point ... there it moved!” Okay. It’s a bear.

It’s been a cold spring, and we’ve heard that the kelp is still small, perhaps
completely below the water’s surface and un-harvestable. Despite these re-
ports we remind ourselves this trip is as much to learn as it is to come back
with kelp. We are some of the first in Alaska to take a keen interest in bull
kelp’s abundance, and we are working with biologists to map out the re-
source’s extent in space and time.

Bull kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana, grows like an annual plant, dying back and
seeding a new generation each year. It grows incredibly fast — during the
height of the growing season a single kelp can grow up to 10 inches a day. Kelp
is also highly adept at concentrating and safekeeping the ocean's diverse nu-
trients. Kelp's high mineral content makes for a savory flavor only found in
foods from the ocean. Kelp has been a staple food of coastal people for mil-
lennia, and it’s densely nutritious giving the body a little bit of everything the
ocean has in it.

Low tide temporarily peels back the ocean to reveal a landscape caught be-
tween two worlds. Colorful contours sweep along the shoreline where bands
of habitat change from dark blue mussels, to golden brown seaweeds, to white
barnacle covered rocks above. Low tide is when we have our best chance of
finding early season kelp as it grows up from the seafloor at depths of 10 to 60
feet. We awaken at 3 a.m., as the sun is rising, to catch the morning low tide
© Hundred-to-One LLC 2018. All rights reserved.