Valdez – Fishermen’s Mecca

Thursday, May 29, 2009 – Day 29

A nice relaxing day!  We didn’t get up till almost 7:15 AM.  It was overcast and drizzling and the temperature was about 42F.  We decided to take a walk beside the small boat harbour which is just across the street from our campground.  Lots of really nice, large boats here. This is a real fisherman’s Mecca. Along the harbour front are covered stainless steel fish cleaning tables with fresh water hand sprayers at each station.  Fish waste is washed down a chute to a large bin in the water about 50 feet below to be collected by the Valdez Harbour Authority and probably sold as crab bait.   Valdez operates an annual fish derby.  The current leader has landed a 110 lb Halibut.  Halibut certainly tastes good but they are UGLYYY.  A Halibut is a large flat fish that when born has eyes on both sides of it’s head  but as it matures, one of the eyes move’s towards the other.

It’s hard to find fresh fish in Alaska - along the coast anyway. I suppose everyone is a fisherman or knows a fisherman.  We stumbled upon the Peter Pan Fish company, that is a large fishing and fish processing operator. We were able to purchase a halibut fletch from there. Not cheap (1.27 lb @ $10.50US/pound)!  Our most expensive meal of the trip and we didn’t eat it in a restaurant. The Peter Pan Fish  company has a couple of large dormitories and a large mess hall on the property as well as all the processing buildings. It purchases most of the catch from local commercial fisherman so it is able to control the retail pricing in the area.

We did a little grocery shopping at Safeway, where for the very first time I got a Senior Citizen’s discount of 10%.  In Valdez, you are considered a senior if you are over 55.  The prices really aren’t too bad considering it’s remote location. (We’ve found inland locations tend to be much higher.) 

In the afternoon we retraced our route from yesterday up the Thompson Pass to Worthington Glacier.  It was kind of scary to actually see where we were driving in the fog of yesterday afternoon.  It was a really beautiful ride when you can actually see it and appreciate it.  

Speaking of seeing.  As this is being written the time is about 10:30 PM and I can see throughout the campground as clear as day.  Janet has been having trouble sleeping because of the light.  Should be very interesting when we get up to Fairbanks in a few weeks.