It seems the September issue of Pacific Fishing magazine, above, put editor Don McManman in the doghouse.
Dozens of readers lodged complaints about the cover photo showing Lucky, a dog, trying to "pick" a salmon from a Bristol Bay setnet.
Bristol Bay fishermen have worked hard to raise the quality of their product in recent years, and the cover casts the bay in a bad light, the readers said. As one reader put it, "this cover photo is just bad for business."
McManman, in the October issue just out, writes that "if you're upset with the cover, I apologize."
OK, Deckboss can certainly understand how Bristol Bay producers might cringe at an image of a dog chomping on what might end up as somebody's dinner. How does that help sell the bay's millions of tasty sockeye?
But from a journalistic standpoint, I like the photo. It makes for a fun, sassy cover.
The critics should remember that Pacific Fishing, and Deckboss, aren't mere marketing tools for industry. If they were, I doubt you'd bother reading them.
So, what's your opinion of the cover?
Full disclosure: I've been a contributing writer for Pacific Fishing magazine for many years.
33 comments:
This cover is a disgrace to the new age of quality handling of Alaska Salmon. First of all You have fish chewed up and bleeding in the mud , a dog pulling a salmon through the net clearly not the picture we want to show when we talk about the Quality of our prized salmon, we want to show fish being live bled handled gently and slush iced, Fish high and dry for seagulls to pick the eyes out of is not quality handling
Dogs really have no place in a food producing area , meaning on a boat deck where fish are harvested.
I would not want to eat these fish, and though I know it is not your job to make us look good, I would hope you would Know when you are making us look bad.
This shot would be perfect for an article titled "Bristol Bay Setneters lag behind the quality curve". As a cover shot it lacks context. It gives the wrong message. I know this shot is not in "BON APPETIT" -- but is this really the direction a trade mag wants to say is 'OK'. Nice picture, bad business.
Its a boner. Thank God nobody reads the magazine!
Sadly, the truth hurts. Fishermen from the Bay can bitch all day about price, collusion, etc but the fact remains that they have a muddy product that is handled poorly. Temperature abuse, mishandling, and uncaring fishermen leave this product as a canned product or frozen commodity product.
The Bay needs to wake up.
Just go to a Bristol Bay Board meeting.
"We fish in Trucks...it's a family affair...dirty diapers and all...we love our dogs...especially the old one's...
Widows, orphans, and wel you know the rest of the story.
Shown best by FACTS.
The BBRSDA Quality Improvement tax?
Set Net ZERO, Drift 100%
0%, where quality is a ZERO, the family affair from Sara and Todd Palin favorites...Bristol's Dirty Diaper Parade, yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir.
We got the Air Conditioning Option, with R134, R22, and R503c too,it came as an option on our truck, from Government Motors, who couldn't make it in business either, and all we need is another welfare program for this family affair...The Peanut Farmer's favorites team.
"It's a fmaily affair."
The picture sets back the effort to present a professional process of getting high quality fish to the public. More people will now see this than you might think and the word will spread. Too bad for those in the Bay that have worked so hard to change the image of the quality of the Bristol Bay sockeye
The picture is a fine piece of photojournalism. Folks that take exception to this "representation" should take it up with the fisherman, not the editor of the magazine. I agree that the photo would be better used in conjunction with an article on quality improvement, but it need not be. No apologies are in order.
Jeez...more whining than a puppy farm. Nice photo. Making much more noise than necessary about it...where's the humor?
If the photo was staged, then one could understand an uproar.
If th photo was not staged, then what is the fuss about - just a typical day on the Bay.
The salmon in the mud bothers me more than the dog 'helping.'
BBay setnetters need to get with the program and join the RSDA so they too can benefit from better handling/quality.
While BB is thin skinned about their quality, much of it is deserved and a single flattering magazine photo fools nobody who has bought their fish in the past.
Frankly they need to get a sense of humor.
That Lab is picking a dog salmon.
The photo is certainly better than the ones you see with a deck load of sockeye tangled up in a net on a warm sunny day.. We are our own worst enemies.
I wrote Don as soon as I saw this cover as it reflects poorly on all our wild Alaska salmon product.
As an Alaska troller I am tired of the gillnet handling practices hurting the quality and reputation of our wonderful salmon.
As a phototgrapher, I really appreciated the photo. As a longtime advocate for improved salmon handling I hope it jolts the industry to how bad things still are in segments of our salmon fisheries.
Can you imagine if the cover image depicted some overzealous fisherman 'deterring' seals from poaching the catch with a .308? Or one that showed those quality fish that are stored beneath the brailer bags? Ohh the horror that Fido would eat our catch...shut up and fish!
No wonder people down south eat farmed salmon! They don't like to see there food getting drug through the mud with dog hair mixed in. What a joke! Some of us, would like to see the price come up someday. PF thanks for the help.
This would be a fine cover if instead of having "save your life..." printed on the side it said "save your money, don't buy Alaskan salmon." Then it would make sense.
Picture sponsored by the dragger fleet. You can let us catch more if you don't eat it. Thanks.
I bet ASMI is pissed!
My opinion? It's wrong.
Looks like subsistance fish from Angoon, maybe Bill Thomas will choke on it!
I am thinking the post at 755 am , and the two following till 839 was the photo journalist and not a Bristol Bay Fisherman,clearly we see it differently and arn't we the ones buying your Magazine? Apparently You do not value our business ,what would happen if we did not like what we saw and quit buying the Magazine, or if we stopped buying because you offended us by making us look bad.
Would that be a problem?
And to think, (NEVER) we got rid of fish pews back in the 70's, bought smaller brailer bags in the 80's, and refer systems in the 90's, but let us not look in the mirror, at some of our associates.
Like Dr. Suess "IT's a Big Dog Party!"
Don't subscribe, it's perfect just like that local Salmon Market, unsubscribed for decades, and the photo facts from these 4 deaf, dumb and blind, widows, orphans and imbeciles like their fancy ADFG code best shown to the world!
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the fairest Red Queen of All!
Recall; Sara Palin's ASMI Photo Shoot advertisement, that big Blueback? Never caught in her neighborhood, unless your as blind as this crew.
Is the dog shit $1.00 in the same bag too?
+.15 for iced dog shit too, Go Lucky, we got Vince Webster, Sara Palins dream team member running it into the DIRT.
It's a family affair, including free genetic inbreeding, clearly you must see the photo shoot.
And ASMI? Pissed? Really? Sustainable Connection's from the inbreads near you!
Hey Anonymous Moron at 9:18pm calling me a photojournalist - I am a fisherman who is not cowed by the industry groupthink to collectively sweep the quality problem under the rug with a silly "What Me Worry" grin. Rather than get all bent out of shape over a picture, take it up with the fisherman to shape up practices so we don't have pictures like this in our fishery!
You are a coward to attack the opinions you don't like by claiming without justification that the people who express such opinions are somehow not qualified. So go to hell!
And yes, I sign on as Anonymous because I am NOT a journalist, but rather a FISHERMAN. I'll tell you the same to your face in person if I know you, but I don't want to have idiots like you chasing me down the dock if'n I don't know you.
Setnetters are the scum of society and should be fed to their own dogs
My thanks to Roland Maw for having the guts to send the memo about Curry and the super 8 at the NPFMC to UFA. I am an Alaskan longliner who fishes for IFQs, cod and some crab with 60 foot+ boat. I am not a member of UFA because Bobbie T, Duncan Fields and the Petersburg-SE gang run the organization for their benefit. There are hundreds of Alaskan boatowners like myself that have endured the uncomprising
snobbishness of Ms Petersburg pouts alot. She inherited her position there when the current Commissioner left to go to work in Governor Palin's office. It is not just about salmon and halibut issues. Curry and her self-righteous clique routinely meddle in fisheries they know nothing about in the Gulf and Bering Sea, such as flounders, pollock and crab. They make recommendations for expensive and unnecessary reporting requirements for other other groups' fisheries that she and her Southeast gang systematically avoid. The issue is accountability and it leads to the bigger question of why the Council has not reviewed the record of decisions that Fuglvog (another PVOA Executive Director), was involved in as a Council decisionmaker. He opposed logbooks, satellite tracking devices (VMS) and observers for exempt under 60 foot Petersburg-style boats in the Gulf longline fisheries. These are standard requirements for boats like mine over 60 feet in length. Curry cleverly carries on the Petersburg legacy of selective avoidance of regulations today on the Council AP and the Commissioner has made no effort to correct the situation. Those of us dealing with issues at the Council are held hostage to Curry and her mentor on the Council, the equally self-righteous Duncan Fields (Harvester Island, Field family dynasty of 12 combined set-net sites). Fields depends on the support of Curry and her eNGOs for his seat on the Council. This enables him to push theirs and his socialistic agendas which have caught Alaskan small boat operations like mine in the bite of the line. How long is this going to go on?
wrong thread.
Setnet allocations need to go away in the Bay. Quality product can never be harvested while fishing in two feet of muddy water and dragging nets onto the beach with boom trucks. Get rid of the political allocations and the problem will work itself out eventually. The drift fleet has been invested heavily in RSW installation and quality incentive programs; however, the setnetters and their allocations keep us in the stone age!
Erik V.
Set net operations are and have been going away around the world. I suspect that they will become marginalized in the Cook Inlet now that we know that they are not needed to prevent over escapement and because they don't discriminate between fish that need to be harvested ( reds) and those that need to get into the river ( kings) . BB reds caught by set nets have always been the subject of quality concerns and until they get it right will never be the equal to a RSW fish. Perhaps it is time to start eliminating some of those operations.
I looked at the cover from the Magazine and it looks way worse in person. I think what Pacific Fishing is trying to say is the setnet fish in the bay are among the worst quality wild salmon anywhere, and if this is a representation it certainly looks like the worst fish I have seen.
hopefully they tossed those last fish back,and they probally did.
I always thought Pacific Fishing Magazine was for the fisherman ,and wanted to show a true representation of what we are doing,and there has been a huge effort to increase quality in the Bay, but they said nothing about that and showed this worst case scenario,Clearly they do not give a rats ass about their fisherman customers as they said they have no interest in helping to market our fish. I am cancelling my subscription!I think others will follow suit.
Corey Blew It by letting this image slip out of his cache. Pretty taseless on his part as well as PF. The dog is not cool to up tight fishermen. The ghost fish looks as bad as it smells.
Drifters blaming setnetters is old news in the bay. as long as our Alaska salmon are being exported from china back to the US dinner table RSW or not we are all a bunch of losers(ASSMI too). The boss is fine with that. Fishermen are the lowest in society all around the world. Most people who eat BB salmon have no idea where they come from, even fewer, BB Fishermen included have a clue where they are going. Under all that water is a bunch of mud. Big friggen surprise.
Typical shatnetters.
The territory of Alaska allowed setnetting for the subsistence of widows and orphans. It was NEVER intended to be a commercial fishery.
What a political pig sty we find ourselves in now.
Nice Photo! That seal has four legs!
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