Ships From 14 Nations Crowd Alaska Town’s Tiny Harbor : Bering Sea Bottom-Fishing Boom Transforms Village

Hunched over the steering wheel in rubber boots and jeans, Paul Fuhs guided his bouncing, mud-splattered truck along a rutted road past docks crowded with fishing vessels.

“It’s the most highly sophisticated fishing fleet in the world,” he said, gesturing toward the boats. “There’s nothing like this anywhere else.”

Fuhs, 39, an expert in underwater explosives, is the unpaid mayor and chief booster of Unalaska--a hotbed of high technology, high finance and high hopes.

The Aleutian village, which has a year-round population of about 1,900, is enjoying a boom in Bering Sea bottom-fishing. U.S. vessels, along with cargo and processing ships from at least 14 other nations, crowd the 80 square miles of harbor and jockey for mooring at the 15 docks.

“In the first two weeks of the year we turned away 114 ships,” Fuhs said. “This has got to be the most exciting place in the world right now.”

Tiny Island Port

Most of the bustle is centered on Dutch Harbor, about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage on tiny Amaknak Island. It is part of the town of Unalaska on the larger, sheltering Unalaska Island.

Fuhs spends much of his time trying to persuade the state to pump money into this wind-swept community--to cash in on the boom instead of asking, “Dutch where? Bottom what?”

The entire state would benefit, he says, if the fishing industry’s focus was shifted northward from the Pacific Northwest ports.

“The state has no policy on bottom-fishing,” Fuhs said. “Seattle has a strategy. Japan has a strategy. Everybody has a strategy but us. Here we are, a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, and it’s fallen in our laps. . . . The Bering Sea could be a perpetual Prudhoe Bay if we manage it properly.”

Fuhs says that state officials urge Unalaska to seek private support. Private investors are willing to build $60-million worth of warehouses, cold storage and processing plants, but first they want the town to upgrade its sewer and water systems and build a bigger dock.

State Aid Solicited

That, Fuhs says, will take state money. “We want grunt-level infrastructure. We don’t want a performing arts center.”

City Manager Nancy Gross says needed improvements in the town’s World War II-era water lines could cost $30 million. Much of the system is built of wood-stave pipes, which leak about 80% of the water pumped through them.

“The needs are just enormous,” she said. “Ten years ago, this was a town of 500 to 600 people with very little industry.”

Unalaska, unfortunately, needs money at a time when slumping oil prices have squeezed the state budget. Gov. Steve Cowper managed to find $1.7 million for Unalaska sewer improvements in the last days of the legislative session.

The harbor master, Gary Daily, said he believes the problem may be Unalaska’s remote location. “The same thing that gives us our advantage works against us,” he said. “There’s a lot of ignorance about what’s going on out here.”

“Out here” is a frontier of sorts, where fists, brains and hard work win respect. Unalaska has no full-time dentist, no plumber, no appliance-repair service, no doctor--and no veterinarian for its scores of free-roaming dogs.

Far-Out Prices

Milk costs $4.99 a gallon. A bottle of Jack Daniels sour mash whiskey that sells for $20 in Anchorage goes for $39.50 here. Softball and basketball are serious pursuits, and eagles are as plentiful as vultures, fighting for space in the rigging of docked vessels.

Almost any language might be heard on the street.

The Soviets are popular because they spend buckets of money on stereo sets, chewing gum, solar-powered watches and plastic baby bottles. And they are enthusiastic merrymakers. “They get down and boogie,” Daily said.

Thirty-five Soviet vessels docked at Dutch Harbor last year; 40 are expected this year.

Men outnumber women 5 to 1 here. Drugs, liquor and brawling are problems.

“These guys make a lot of money and there is nothing to do here,” said Pete Davis, 48, who is chief of the eight-man police force. “If they’re so inclined they can stick it up their nose or pour it down their throats--85% of our work is because of booze or drugs.”

Rustic, Harsh Environment

From the islands the mountains seem to wade into the sea, and flat land goes at a premium. There are 30-odd miles of car-killing dirt roads and a 3,900-foot, heart-stopping gravel air strip.

If it rains there is mud. If not, there is choking dust.

And there is money--lots of money.

The Bering Sea fisheries--a source of salmon, crab and bottom fish--generate $1.3 billion to $2.3 billion a year. Fishermen get about $400 million of that and the rest covers the myriad services needed to keep the boats afloat.