Petersburg’s fishermen are clearly happy with the strong salmon market this year. The goal is to create one-stop shopping for the fleet, including machining, retail and serving as a dealer for Cummins and John Deere marine engines. A dock expansion to 300 feet will bring their capacity to eight boats, and a 12,000-pound crane will haul power skiffs. “We’re too busy to work on boats,” Luhr jokes. However, the primary work at the yard is still expanding its capacity. On June 2, 2011, the yard began hauling boats again. All told, 24 of them are commercial fishermen. Pretty soon 27 community shareholders had committed their own funds to the project and pooled more than a million dollars. Local businessman Mike Luhr was considering retiring from his own Piston and Rudder Service and instead found himself heading a vast community project to bring the yard back to life.
Local fishermen had to steam to Wrangell or more far-flung ports for any type of haulout. In October 2010, the Petersburg Shipwrights shut its doors.
But everyone’s favorite story this summer was the revival of the local boatyard. Even the Elk’s Club was saved by local volunteers, who vowed to wait tables and find local chefs to keep the kitchen running in order to preserve the club. “We’re awfully proud of what we’ve done here in Alaska,” says Petersburg Harbormaster Glorianne Wollen.Īnd the people of Petersburg are proud of what they’ve done for their own town. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user brewbooks. Fishing boats tied up in Petersburg, Alaska. Thanks in large part to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute promotions of wild Alaska salmon and the quality of fish produced by direct marketer-fishermen like Meintel and his partner-wife Cynthia Wallesz, the product is sought after worldwide. Hasn’t always been that way, but everybody wants salmon now,” says George Meintel, co-owner and skipper of the Lofoten, a 36-foot salmon gillnetter. “It’s about bang for your buck now as far as economic investment. Today that investment in fisheries is really paying off, especially in salmon. “We have sustainable fisheries - and proven over a century - and a sustainable economy,” says Sue Paulsen, town historian. Instead, they diversified into more fisheries and began amassing permits. When wild salmon prices nosedived in the late 1990s, Petersburg didn’t give up on salmon or fishing in general, despite offers to build a sawmill in town. The town of nearly 3,000 people - less than half a percent of the state’s population - possesses 8 percent of the state’s commercial fishing permits for their fisheries. Scandinavian pride (primarily Norwegian and Swedish heritage) and work ethic give Petersburg its unique flavor. However, the people of the town are so fiercely proud of their fishing heritage (and so hard at work keeping the industry bustling in town) that they tend to regard targeting tourists as a lighthearted sideline to the real business of catching and processing fish. Petersburg has gone out of its way to get itself on the map (literally: the chamber of commerce paid a fee to be included on the ferry’s tourist map of the Inside Passage). Other Southeast towns are reaching out to the tourism industry to grab passers-through and their dollars from Alaska Marine Highway System cruises touting tours of the heart of the Inside Passage. The people of Petersburg are at an interesting crossroads, being located in a highly marketed and marketable part of Alaska.
“Petersburg always has been - and hopefully always will be - a fishing town,” says Julianne Curry, executive director of the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association. In a town that boasts one commercial fishing permit for every two people, one can understand why. “This is where you want to keep your boat, have it fixed and sell your product,” says Mayor Al Dwyer, underscoring the town’s main economic driver. The locals are fastidious, but above all, they’re industrious. A string of unassuming shops and restaurants primarily cater to the principle industry in Petersburg: commercial fishing. Yet, its main street (which in most parts of the country is considered the avenue of first impressions) is rather perfunctory. I would soon cement the idea gelling in my mind that this town is awash in contradictions.Īlaska’s Little Norway has streets lined with perfectly appointed Scandinavian-style houses with manicured lawns and impeccable gardens. When I got off an Alaska Airlines 737 in Petersburg, Alaska, I was struck by how small the airport is, given the size of the plane (a flight that nestles between the muskeg and mountains twice daily). Petersburg was founded by Norwegians and is thriving on fish
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