Tastey herrings anyone?

Spawning herring have arrived in Resurection Bay! Tyler and I have spent the last week looking for signs of herring spawn, hoping to find a big ol bunch of tastey fish. We've trekked all around the bay on rumors of where they were spotted the day before, only to be just a little to late each time to watch a spawning event. They've been around in big schools, spawning on whatever they can. Herring actually don't exist in egg form very long, they develop in only 10 days! The kelp around the bay is all quite quickly becoming covered in little clear herring eggs, which will soon all disapear. And those little eggs have been mocking us all week long--where are your parents little babies?!? Well, on Tyler's lunch break yesterday, he went across the street to see if he could catch anything in the bay (yes, he does this regularly. And yes, he really is Mr. Hunter/Fisherman of Seward...he spends more time with a pole in the water than I think even the fisherman do) In a few short seconds he caught 5 herring! So, after work, some of his coworkers and I headed back down to the docks to try our luck, and did we score!

Bob, in the bright yellow jacket, works with Tyler. He caught 3 fish at once!

This is Tyler showing his co-worker's son how to fish. Tyler proved to be quite the fishing mentor, and spent most of his time while we were at the docks helping this little tyke catch his fish. He doesn't get out fishing much, so he was a very excited boy, especially when he got to catch more than one fish at one time! He kept grabbing the fish and shaking them, trying to prove how much of a man he was to the fish. I don't think death by little man shaking is a preferred method of fish killing, so Tyler quickly threw them in the bucket instead. 

This is our bucket of herring filling up! My project today is to can and pickle it. I will be busy for the next few hours....Between the 6 of us fishing, we caught about 2.5 gallons of herring fishies. And I've been craving some pickled herring! 

This is one of my best wildlife pictures so far--a little arctic tern mid-flight! There were a bunch of them at the docks with us, scooping up tasties from the water. They were screaming and dive bombing right next to a little sea otter that was fast asleep. It was quite an adorable scene. Arctic terns are pretty amazing birds. They just arrived in Seward in the past week or so, where they have a breeding colony. They spent their winter all the way in Antartica fishing, and flew all the way back here to have little ternie babies! No wonder they were all gorging themselves in the bay...I'd be quite hungry too. We have one arctic tern at the SeaLife Center, and she's the only on we know of in captivity anywhere. They're so cute!

After all the wildlife viewing and catching, we came home to clean and eat some fresh fish. The deal: I will cook the sides and can the fish if Tyler cleaned it all. Yes! I win! So, we grilled the herring on the barbeque and I made some rosemary potatoes and a greek bean/pea side dish. The sides were very yummy, but I do have a recomendation: Pickle your herring. It's oh so much yummier. 

Wish me luck with the pickling!