The following story was submitted to the Bristol Bay Fisheries Report in a series of inReach messages by Area M commercial fisherman Steven Burrows, fishing near Port Heiden on the F/V HAP.
Click to listen to a dramatic reading by KDLG’s Mark McKeown.
It was four days into the south side opener. We had just picked up half a net of about 300 fish. All of the sudden, about half a shackle away, my captain and I see serious thrashing in the net. Captain starts cussing and saying, “We got a shark!” As it gets closer I see it's actually a dolphin!
Being ex Navy and training with them in San Diego, I immediately jumped into action. I started taking my rain gear off and dove overboard. I swam around to the stern with my hands now inches from the dolphin. I said "Don't worry, buddy, I'll save you."
I climbed up the stern, ran inside, and grabbed a Vicky. “Noooo,” the captain screamed, as I came out of the pilot house and put the Vicky in my mouth, “Don't, get back in there! That thing will kill you!”
I dove. In the water, I started to cut the mesh off the dolphins head. It started to calm down. Now, the tail was wrapped and about 30 mesh down. I put my hands underneath, took a deep breath, and went under.
35 seconds passed. The cold started to set in.
Underneath the mesh, with my palm facing me, I turned the sharp edge of the knife toward me and slid it in between my index and middle finger.
With his tail finally cut free, it was as if the dolphin knew I was in trouble of getting caught in the mesh.
The dolphin put his nose into my stomach and pushed me away from the net, about 4 feet up the side of the boat.
I scrambled on board to the mumbling curses of my captain.
I’m back again for the 2023 season and I'm running the boat back from False Pass for my captain and there are hundreds of dolphins swimming in groups of 3.
One dolphin breaks away and swims up next to the boat. It was a long shot but I opened the porthole window on the port side and in the same tone as last year, I said, "Is that you buddy?”
Seconds after I asked this the entire dolphin comes all the way out of the water revealing a web of net scars on his face and tail from the previous year.
The clear and distinct mesh had pressed unmistakable diamond shapes into his flesh. The dolphin followed along side for almost a solid 20 minutes before breaking away and returning to his pack. I was weeping tears of joy for another 20 minutes.
My captain was still upset about me making such an arrogant decision to jump into the net last season.
At that moment though, still sleepy from when I woke him from his bunk, he looked out to see the same dolphin.
He looked back at me and said "Steve, I was wrong. Thanks to you, he probably has a family now."
I’m here missing my family back home but I knew a higher power would be grateful for my sacrifice on that day.
-Steven Burrows
Get in touch with the Fisheries Report team at fish@kdlg.org.
