Product Details

• Directors: John Sabella
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1996
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• ASIN: 0938506021
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #596,762 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Hardly enough has been done to document an important part of Alaska's coastal history. The Days of Salmon Traps and Fish Pirates and The Great Age of Salmon are two videos well worth a spot in the video library. Both give a glimpse of Washington and Alaska's not-too-distant-past the robber baron era of the salmon fishing industry.

The major players in the industry were the Pacific American Fisheries, or PAF as it was known to most, and the Alaska Packers Association, the largest operator, with its Star fleet of windjammers that operated until the 1940s. The videos also show the workings of the China Contract which governed the operation of the canneries and was a patronage system based on mutual honor, loyalty and integrity of worker and boss.

Archival films and photos give a sense of what it must have been like going north from San Francisco on the windjammers; fishing the sail boats of Bristol Bay, which survived the technological ax til 1952; standing the lonely four-month vigil of the trap watchmen; and toilling in the canneries. The fish traps based on technology developed by West Coast Indian people, are show in models and in footage of their actual construction. -- Alaska Magazine, July, 1996

Product Description

This award-winning documentary videotape brings to life a fascinating era in the history of commercial fishing at the last frontier. Featuring film footage dating back to 1926, narrated by industry pioneer Stan Tarrant, The Great Age of Salmon & the PAF is the story of the salmon fishing industry in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and of the dominant force in the early salmon business, the Pacific American Fisheries Company of Bellingham. Sail to Alaska aboard a 1920s-era windjammer! Fish for salmon aboard the sailing dories of Bristol Bay! Climb aboard a fish trap! This is a program history buffs, maritime enthusiasts and fishermen will definitely want to add to their collections. VHS, 30 minutes. Sequel to The Days of Salmon Traps & Fish Pirates.