What type of fishing vessel is it?
Purse Seiners catch schooling fish like salmon or herring by encircling them with a long net and drawing (pursing) the bottom closed to trap the fish. Seiners are sleek, forward-cabin vessels recognized by their crow's nest on top of the vertical mast used by the skipper to sight fish and maneuver during a set.

How does the gear work?
Also characteristic are the diagonal boom with power block, open flying bridge atop the wheelhouse, and net stacked on the stern deck. A smaller jitney (power skiff) rides piggy-back aboard the stern or is towed. Seiners are limited by law in Alaska to 58 feet in length.

Male Sockeye or Red Salmon

What does it catch?
Purse Seiners catch concentrated schools of sockeye (red) salmon and herring that form during migration or spawning.

Where does the catch end up?
Seine-caught salmon are delivered in-the-round (whole) to buying stations and canneries where they become frozen or canned products. Herring are delivered to processing plants where they are stripped of their eggs (roe) or packaged as bait. Salted herring roe (kazunoko) is shipped to Japan.