To those I've upset.

Note: I didn't publish this until now: 12/8/2011. I've been going back and rereading my Alaska tales in preparation to write about the experience and the backlash and I am now publishing what sat on my dashboard as a draft for over three years. At the time I realized it was better to stay silent than to explain my actions.

I caught three fish when on the boat.

I understand that you are upset.

I gave those fish to an Alaskan family.

That family shared them with their neighbors and other Alaskans. They took several different native Alaskans out on the boats with them, all of whom had families and licenses. The number of fish caught was cumulative and shared amongst several families, no one was over the limit.

The fish stayed in state and went to feed those who were unable to come themselves as gifts of kindness.

They were gracious enough to be my hosts and are proud of where they come from.

They wanted nothing more than to share a special experience with visitors.
I understand the law and why it is there and we did not take any fish with us from your state.

My writing was an expression of an experience, not meant to be a reflection on Alaska in general nor was it meant to be any definitive point of view of what should or should not happen on the water. Writing about it was my way of sharing the experience with others whom I know who weren't there with me on my travels.

This blog should not be used as material for a news story, editorial or otherwise.

Consider this my apology although I believe my experiene when explained, is hardly newsworthy. The atmosphere on the river was highly competitive with people bragging left and right about how many fish they'd caught. The blood lust extended much further beyond our boat and in fact was not encourage on ours. I was just brought on to be given the change to catch a fish in a net for the first and last time in my life and doing so was a life-changing experience.

I need to be aware about what I post in a public sphere. Blogs can be highly personalized and I never believe mine to be really geniunely noticable to the outside world. I have a core group of readers, most of whom I know. Never in a million years did I expect anyone from a newspaper to find what I wrote and find it necessary to tell an entire community. However by posting I know I put myself out there, able to be used to prove a point.

Comments are disabled on this post as I would like it to serve as a statement, not a dialogue and would like to move on. Thank you.