(logo chiming) (regal music) - It wasn't 'til later in life that I started learning about reefnetting.

The difference in the two ways of fishing is, the reefnet is permanently fixed.

So you're watching the fish come to you.

Whereas the type of fishing we do with seiners or gillnetters is you're watching for fish and you're chasing them.

My husband's name was Larry Kinley.

Larry got this idea of let's build a reefnet.

Larry's goal with the reefnet was he was hoping to pass it on to Northwest Indian College to get students out on them.

We have to get out there to be amongst our ancestors.

(regal music continues) (water sloshing) (dramatic music) - My family was one of the pioneer families on Lummi Island.

Growing up, they were farmers and fishermen, and a lot of them became reefnetters after the traps went out in 1935.

(machine clicking) When I was in high school and college, I fished on a gear that was run by an old Lummi fisherman, John Lewis.

He had reefnetted for years and years and years.

My cousin Roger and I grew up on that gear, and we came to understand and appreciate the Lummi tradition at that point in time.

There's a mystique about going out early in the morning, setting the net, and waiting for those fish to come.

(boat whirring) - I'd say it took me about five years to really get the hang of it.

But once I did, when you stand up on the headstand, the one that sees the fish first, (machine whirring) (dramatic music continues) ah, it's pretty magical.

But it's been fraught.

(gentle music) There were 78 gears out here back in 1935, right out here in Legoe Bay where we're sitting.

It was a fishing town.

The whole island culture was all about reefnet fishing.

- There were numerous reefnet gears, not only at Lummi Island, 40, 50 gears when I was in high school and college just right over here at Legoe Bay.

But there were gears at Cherry Point, up at Point Roberts, San Juan and Shaw Island.

The state got some money from the federal government to buy back licenses, because there was too much production for the amount of fish that were showing up.

- [Steve] The reefnet fleet as a whole only harvests 5% of the commercial catch.

- [Riley] And now, we only have 12 gears out here, and that's it.

- You can't actually make a living doing reefnetting.

(gentle music) You have to have a real job to support your commercial fishing habit.

- [Pete] Electricians, carpenters, teachers.

- A postman, a luthier, my partner was a jeweler.

- They fished for the love of it.

A lotta these guys have been fishing their spots for 40 years, even 50 years.

- Some of them are pretty mechanical because there's a lot of technical aspects to this.

- This is the Bob Schmerz Reefnet Yard.

It's the current storage for two of the reefnet sites.

(birds chirping) We have 24-volt battery systems that run off solar panels.

These are all our winches that we use.

This boat is actually one that I had my best reefnet day ever on sockeye.

I caught 3,000 fish.

This year, the returns are so small that we have no sockeye fisheries scheduled.

Because of that, therein, in fact, is a law that says no additional salmon licenses in the State of Washington.

- The Washington Reefnet Owners Association has been a really good advocate for reefnet fishermen.

- The Washington Reefnet Owners Association is a long-time organization of the reefnet license owners.

(camera clicking) We have, over the years, lobbied for reefnet fishing opportunity.

We provide the members with magazines and information.

We get together once a year.

We talk about the previous season, get predictions for what the current season is going to look like.

And then we have a lunch and social hour.

(tense music) - I am the executive director of the Salish Center for Sustainable Fishing Methods, a nonprofit that I started in 2018, with the goal of explaining to the world what reefnetting is and why it's important.

That tree right there is 250 years old.

Before the United States of America, the Coast Salish people were reefnetting here on this spot.

The tradition, the history, the sanctity is all here.

Don't ever take it for granted.

(water whooshing) - Fraser River sockeye salmon come in four-year cycles, and it's really been getting hammered by environmental problems in the last two cycles.

Four years ago, they got hit by a rock slide.

But it's not just the slides.

It's warming ocean temperatures.

Salmon really like cold water.

(dramatic music) (water whooshing) - It's quiet.

Reefnet gears, if you're not actively catching fish, you hear the wind, you hear the water going by.

(water sloshing) And then suddenly, when the fish arrive, (machine whirring) it's adrenaline for 2 1/2 minutes.

And then it's done.

And everything's quiet again.

(water sloshing) (gentle music) - Well, being right near quota, I'd put a pitch into the state and see if you could have a special permission to put your net in the water on Monday.

I mean, if it's been as slow as this afternoon, they won't be seeing anything, but you never know.

(gear whooshing) Okay, see you later, bye.

(boat humming) - My plan is to reefnet as long as I am able to, because in five, six, 10 years, we're gonna not be able to do it.

And so we're making every attempt to pass the torch forward.

- My view is that we definitely need to put the heritage front and center.

The 30-some-odd years that I've been involved, I feel like I've been a placeholder until the day that reefnetting can again propagate throughout the Salish Sea.

(tense music continues) (light music) - [Speaker] My dad came here to the San Juan Islands back in 1946.

- [Speaker] In 1951, he finished his thesis statement.

- "Reefnetters of the Salish Sea" is my father's unpublished work.

- There needs to be a new version of the Coast Salish stories.

- And that's exactly what this research embraces.

We believe this project will set precedents for Indigenous groups around the world.

(dramatic music)