In early April, on the day after Easter, fishermen Vernon Hill, Bernard Wolf and George Lindoff returned to Hoonah from Sitka Sound toting a shipload of “Easter eggs.” The crew of the Shirley N spent nine days dropping hemlock branches into the shoreline, waiting for herring to spawn and collecting herring eggs on branches.
Hill, captain of the Shirley N, has been gathering herring eggs in Sitka Sound since the 1970s. Here are some excerpts from a recent conversation with him in the wooden wheelhouse of his ship.

The crew of the Shirley N, visiting Sitka Sound from Hoonah to harvest herring eggs on branches. Bethany Goodrich
Q: What does herring season look like?
A: It is just like spring coming alive. When we leave from Hoonah running south, you know, everything is cold up here. A couple years we have even had snow on deck. The closer you get to Sitka the more life you see — sea lions, whales and birds. It is like everything is just coming alive again after winter.
Q: Hoonah to Sitka is a long trip, the labor is hard and herring spawning season is sometimes unpredictable. It can require weeks of waiting. So, what is the big deal with herring eggs?
A: Culture. Herring eggs let you know that winter is over. That is the first thing you really get as far as subsistence foods. It makes you realize that the hard part of winter is gone.
Q: What is the community of Hoonah like?
A: It is between old ways and the modern days with the corporations coming in. In the last 20 years it has really been going through a lot of changes. Not to mention the tourism. But people are still hanging on to their subsistence values and needs. They just love getting out on the water and gathering.

Herring eggs layer a piece of kelp, Bethany Goodrich.