& be sure to visit their booths at #1301
Tele Aadsen began her commercial fishing career at the age of seven, when she sold her first catch for the price of an ice cream cone. She spends ocean summers in Southeast Alaska, trolling for salmon aboard the F/V Nerka with partner Joel Brady-Power, and land winters in Bow, Washington, self-marketing their frozen-at-sea catch through Nerka Sea Frozen Salmon. She is the author of What Water Holds, performs annually with Oregon’s FisherPoets Gathering, and co-authored the Working Boats Coloring Book with artist Tom Crestodina. Her name is pronounced “Tell-ah.”
I commercial fish out of WA and OR for troll-caught salmon and albacore tuna on F/V Spring Persuader, and am a poet that performs with the Fisherpoets. In the off-season, I homeschool my son who has every intention and desire to be the next generation in the commercial fishing industry.
Richard Bard’s seasonal home for 15 years was along the Gulf of Alaska coast where he trolled for salmon from Dixon Entrance to Cape Suckling and, later, worked on halibut longliners in the Aleutian Islands. He still makes his living on the ocean as a delivery captain, moving power and sailboats along and across various oceans. He has published three marine books—a novel about trolling out of Sitka; a collection of boat deliveries that went south; and his most recent, TSIU BLUE. He has performed at the Fisher Poets Gathering since its inception.
David’s career on the ocean began at age 13 as a mate on a party boat in Seabrook, NH. At age 19, he received his Coast Guard Masters license and began captaining vessels while earning a BA in Biology, Cum laude in 1975 from Boston University. Directly after college he worked as a researcher at the New England Aquarium but returned to fishing to support his family. He was owner/captain of the 44-foot stern trawler, the Ellen Diane for 40 years, retiring in 2022. Over the past three decades, his other fishing-based activities include past presidency of the Tri-Coastal Seafood Co-op, as well as member of the board of Directors of the New Hampshire Commercial Fisherman’s Association, the Northeast Seafood Coalition, and the Yankee Fisherman’s Co-op.
In addition, he was a member of the New England Fisheries Management Council as the Obligatory seat from New Hampshire from 2004-2013. He was recipient of the Highliner Award from the National Fisherman in 2004 and is a Co-Principal Investagator on a number of peer reviewed scientific publications.
Endangered Species was written after he retired in 2022 while undergoing successful cancer treatments.
He remains active in fisheries management and fishes seasonally for groundfish and tuna on his 22foot center console in the Gulf of Maine.
Get in touch with David by visiting his Facebook page or reach out to him directly via email.
“Write what you know, right?” So says D. MacNeill Parker who used her experience in commercial fishing to paint a vivid background where killers are tracked over and under the pages of her new crime mystery, DEATH IN DUTCH HARBOR. Ms. Parker and her family are long time participants in the Alaska fishing industry. In addition to fishing for halibut, salmon, crab, and cod, she’s been a journalist, a fisheries specialist for the State of Alaska, and a seafood company executive. Married to a fisherman, halibut bought their first home in Kodiak. She’s travelled to most ports in Alaska including small villages on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and above the Arctic Circle. She’s trekked mountains in the Chugach range, rafted the Chulitna River, skied the spectacular Arctic to Indian traverse, worked in remote hunting camps, sport fished in some of Alaska’s choice salmon rivers, survived a boat that went down off the coast of Kodiak, and weathered many rough and tumble fishery management meetings. Parker’s been to Dutch Harbor many times and experienced her share of white knuckler airplane landings and beer at the Elbow Room, famed as Alaska’s most dangerous bar. While the characters in Death in Dutch Harbor leapt from her imagination, they thrive in this authentic setting. The author loves Alaska, the sea, a good yarn, and her amazing family.
Eric took the blanket he’d laid on the ice bench and draped it over the guy’s shoulders, just a kid, really. He folded the kids hands so they lay on his lap and packed ice at his sides so he would remain secure for the rough ride back to port. Reaching into the chest pocket of his own jacket, he removed a pack of cigarettes. His hand shook as he lit two.
“We smoke the same brand,” he said, bending to wedge one in Guy’s gray lips. He smoked the other cigarette, all the while talking to the kid as if his spirit lingered nearby. “What a bummer,” he said, “dying so young.” He told the kid he would be missed by someone and promised to get him home. Hearing his voice crack, Eric turned away as if he didn’t want Guy to see him that way. Then he closed the freezer door.
Guy sat in the bait locker, the cigarette still hanging from his lips. The freezing temperature caused the saltwater on his eyelashes and beard to crystallize. He looked as if he were climbing Mt. Everest instead of sitting propped-up, dead in a fishing boat bait locker headed to Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
Dave Anderson is a third generation fisherman, a veterinarian, and ex state legislator and golf course owner living on south Whidbey. Dave has written two books Salish sea oriented and is an artist and wood worker featuring salmon, orcas and NW themes.
Born in the Midwest, artist Tom Crestodina has been working as a fisherman in Alaska for over 20 years and studied marine engineering at the Seattle Maritime Academy. After the birth of his first child with his wife, Ania, he began making cutaway drawings of the vessels he was working on as a way to communicate with his small child while he was at sea. After other seafarers began to ask for drawings of their own vessels, he went on to document the maritime trades in his whimsical style, and his work is now carried in shops and galleries all over the Pacific coast of North America. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, with Ania and their two children.
Website: www.TheScow.BigCartel.com
Founded in 2016, Pirate Metal Works creates sculptures inspired by a marine lifestyle. Each art piece is crafted by Jennifer and her team, in our Bellingham shop and studio location. Follow our story on social media @piratemetalworksllc
Get in touch with Jennifer and Pirate Metal Works LCC via email, follow them on social media, or visit their website.
Laura always wanted to work with fish but didn’t know her early, seemingly endless career search would push her beyond the edges of the earth, to Alaska’s wild Bering Sea. Her memoir, BERING SEA STRONG, takes us on a journey to overcome hardships with courage and humor as she lives and works as the only woman alongside a shipload of fishermen. Since her Bering Sea years, Laura has worked as an ecologist designing, building and monitoring habitat restoration projects throughout King County, WA. She fills her life with her love of great people, nature, travel, adventure, leading volunteer events and writing.
This year's Author's & Artist's corner will be located at booth 1301.
