Pink Salmon

I’m writing this in the air above Prince Rupert, on BC’s wild North Coast. I’m on my way to meet the Hawkshaws, Fred and Linda, who are going to take me out on their commercial fishing boat looking for pink salmon. They use a unique ‘catch and hold’ system that ensures the fish they sell directly to restaurants are as fresh as possible. This is a bit of a homecoming for me, as I began my radio career in Terrrace, to the west of Prince Rupert, and started my first job for the CBC in Prince Rupert. Of course, landing at the Digby Island airport reminded me what a chore it is to get in and out of this place by air. The airport is on an island….after you land you have to get on a bus, which drives on a ferry ($11), which takes you to the outskirts of the city, then the bus delivers you to downtown Prince Rupert…about an hour after you land. I guess the good news is that once you’re downtown you’re not far from anywhere in the city! The optimistic folk in town call the ferry ride a ‘scenic, relaxing, 20-minute glide across the harbour’. The pessimistic folk call it ‘a pain in the ass’.