COVID-19 threatened Alaska’s fishermen. Here's how they persevered.

Davis and Mancuso are the newest owners of the Red Dog Inn, which has been a frequented haunt for 50 years. They purchased the local dive bar during the pandemic. The couple says that when Lynn Johnson, the former owner of the establishment who had owned it for 49 years, put the bar up for sale, they feared that a non-local would purchase the property or that it would be altogether lost. So they bought it. They were celebrating their decision to purchase the property in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands, at the start of the U.S.’s acknowledgement of the pandemic. Mancuso, also a fisherman, was hit in the pandemic in two ways; the bar that he and his partner were in the process of buying could not operate during the summer months, which are the busiest ones of the year in Naknek, and the strict mandates put in place for fishermen made fishing untenable for Mancuso as well. But the couple is hopeful. Davis has created a food program for the establishment that so far has been a success she says. Mancuso has chosen to lease out his permit and his boat this year to focus on building up the business at the Red Dog Inn. He believes that businesses like the Red Dog are important to the community because they circulate money directly within the community, while much of the revenue made from fishing leaves after the season ends.

Gottschalk stands for a portrait on her property in Naknek, Alaska. Gottschalk grew up in Naknek hearing stories about the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic, and when news about the coronavirus spread, she was worried. A member of the tribal council and an active community member, Gottschalk, who has been involved in fishing since early in her life, was among the voices who called for strict protocols on the processing plants and fishermen coming to Naknek from outside. Graves from the era of the Spanish flu epidemic are still being pulled from the banks, she said. She was told as a child that the virus was still alive in the remains. She says that she, although coming from a long line of fishermen and being part of a fishing family, was personally adamant to close the fishery. “If you do not learn, history repeats itself,” she says.

Hurley stands for a portrait outside of her home in Dillingham, Alaska. A commercial fisherman, captain, and the executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Hurley was active in organizing and petitioning the government for safer protocols during the commercial fishing season in 2020. “I was so thankful for our leadership, and the fact that our leadership said we’re not repeating history, we’re not doing this anymore, where industry and so-called economies outweigh the value of our people. We aren’t going to stand by and allow that to happen. We demand more. And I think Bristol Bay has been doing that for a while. If you look at the Pebble issue, we’re justnot willing to have a seat at the table, we’re going to run our own table, and we are not going to allow others to dictate our future,” says Hurley.

Kern is a port foreman at the port of Naknek. In 2020 and again in 2021, the port has been closed to the public to limit interaction between out of state workers and the local population during the pandemic.

Glass, a fisherman from Dillingham, Alaska, did not fish during the 2020 season. When things felt uncertain in the spring and much less was known about the novel coronavirus, he told his crew that he couldn't guarantee that he would go out even if the fishery moved ahead, and that they should look for other boats to work with. He moved his boat from the boatyard to his home to avoid the crowds and chose to work a construction job for the summer instead. This year, Glass went out with a new crew but worked on his boat, the Brown Dog, in his yard at home.