Gillnetting movie is like old times

Posted: Friday, April 20, 2012 10:00 am

When the Ear was but an earlet, sitting on a stoop and listening to the old timers talk about the glory days of lobstering and oystering was a real treat. The movie, “WORK IS OUR JOY: The Story Of The Columbia River Gillnetter,” has the same feel to it.

A project of the Oregon State University Extension Sea Grant and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the film is an oral history with reminiscences by ROSS LINDSTROM, CECIL MOBERG, JOHN VLASTALICIA, HANK RAMVICK, ELMER HURULA, GUNNAR HERMANSON, ARNOLD “TOOTS” PETERSON, JACK MARINCOVICH, and many others.

You can watch the movie here: http://tinyurl.com/crgillnet

A little history tidbit: “The first non-Native gillnet on the Columbia belonged to THOMAS HODGKINS, an immigrant fisherman from the Kennebec River in Maine,” says Irene Martin in The Oregon Encyclopedia. “He operated the net in 1853 near Oak Point, four miles northwest of present-day Clatskanie.”

Some local families have been gillenetting for almost four generations. As one gillnetter noted, “I think the fellas that were born into it, that grew up in the game, make the best fishermen. They have a sense for it ... They have a feel for it.”

One fisherman summed up the overall tone of the film perfectly: “I think it’s probably a matter of receiving joy in what you’re doing. There are some people who just fish, and others who love to fish.”

Watch and enjoy  – the film is a real treasure.

— Elleda Wilson

Reprinted with the permission of The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon

Astoria fisherman lured to the top

Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 10:00 am

Fisherman CHRIS CAMERON of Astoria, pictured inset, is in the midst of the adventure of a lifetime: He is on the PEAK FREAKS MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION 2012.

The team consists of 12 international climbers, three Western guides, 34 Sherpa staff members and leader TIM RIPPEL, who has spent 21 years guiding in the Himalayas. Pictured, some of the group at base camp.

Climbing Everest is a long process. There are several acclimatization climbs back and forth between base camps 1, 2 and 3, a rest, then the wait for the “annual window of opportunity where winds typically start to die down and summit pushes begin,” the expedition blog says (http://tinyurl.com/peakblog). “Peak Freaks has had summits as early as May 6 and as late as May 21 and ... right up till the end of May.”

The climbers’ blog is updated daily, and pictures of the expedition, which are added regularly, are available at http://tinyurl.com/pixnepal. It never ceases to amaze the Ear that it is possible to communicate online and send photos from such an impossibly remote location.

Sadly, on April 21, one of the expedition members, NAMGYA TSHERING SHERPA, 30, fell into a deep crevasse while climbing toward Base Camp 2, more than two-thirds of the way up the 29,029-foot mountain. Fortunately, his body was able to be retrieved “by climbers who were in the area at the time,” the blog says.

The full news story is here: http://tinyurl.com/nepalifalls.

Chris’ mother, AUDREY CAMERON, his daughter, NATASHA CAMERON, his ex-wife, XIAO HONG LIU and his mother’s sister, GEORGIA MARINCOVICH, are holding the fort stateside. After the upsetting news about the Sherpa’s fall, the family was relieved when Chris was able to call home and reassure them he was fine.

“We of course have been worried from the get-go about this adventure, but he was bound and determined to go,” Georgia observed. “We continue to keep Chris and the other climbers in our prayers.”

— Elleda Wilson

Reprinted with the permission of The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon