Of all the ways in which Alaska's aviation and fishing industries have been associated over the years, the use of aircraft to spot fish for commercial fishing operators has by far been the most controversial.

Fish spotting is not unique to Alaska or even the West Coast; according to Aerial Age Weekly, it was used as early as 1920 off the coast of Virginia when "....each morning at 5 o'clock a flying boat carrying a pilot, radio operator and fish spotter leaves the station to aid fishing craft."

In Alaska, an early mention of the practice can be found in Pacific Fisherman, which carried a small note in 1940 under the headline "Plane Locates Fish For Petersburg Gillnetters." This "new use of airplanes" was organized by a local gillnetter and pilot to fly the "Stikine flats country" between Petersburg and Wrangell.

The jury was still out then as to how successful the experiment would be, and World War II interrupted any large-scale continuation of the practice -- at least temporarily.

By the 1950s, aerial photography of fish was becoming a valuable tool for the Fish and Wildlife Service, especially to spot salmon in Bristol Bay.

Pacific Fisherman recorded that post-war use of aircraft in this capacity was not to be considered casual flying, and required maintaining a constant altitude -- "generally between 600 and 800 feet" -- avoidance of glare and the precision counting of the observer who "counts ten individuals, mentally connects ten such groups to make a block of 100 fish, then divides the entire school into such blocks, tallying the individual hundreds on a hand-counter."

All the while, the pilot was holding the aircraft in a constant-rate turn to provide his passenger a steady view to assist the effort.

The commercial use of fish spotters in the state, or hiring of small aircraft by specific boats to lead them to their catch, did not reach newsworthy proportions until the 1970s. As the herring season in particular shortened and the opportunity to catch large quantities was limited, reliance upon aircraft to find schools quickly became more and more common and even critical to success.

A hazardous profession

Fish-spotting aircraft operate under the same visual flight rules as any others in airspace with no control towers; pilots are required to maintain certain clearances from the ground, obstacles and other aircraft. Communication is critical, but the ultimate charge is on the pilots to see and avoid each other. Unfortunately in Alaska, fish season soon became notorious for accidents.

In 1984, at the opening of herring season, there was a fatal crash over Togiak, a mid-air collision under a low overcast cloud layer that killed the occupants of both aircraft. According to the NTSB report, witnesses described the flight activity as "frantic," "chaotic" and "insane."

In 1991, a mid-air collision near Tatitlek resulted in the death of one of the pilots, while the other was able to land. At the time of the accident, witnesses told the NTSB there were about 50 aircraft circling Boulder Bay waiting for herring season to open.

In 1995 near Naknek a Piper Super Cub and Cessna 172 collided while fish-spotting at about 400 feet over the water and both pilots were killed.

In 1997 the surviving pilot from the Tatitlek accident was involved in another mid-air while flying a Cessna 185 on floats near Galena Bay, along with a spotter, while waiting for the opening of herring season. That plane collided with another pilot and spotter in a Bellanca, which then crashed in the bay, killing both aboard. No one was injured in the Cessna.

In each of these accidents and many others that occurred in the 1980s and '90s, the probable cause was determined to be inadequate visual lookout, diverted attention or failure to see and avoid.

A recipe for risk

The high number of aircraft in a limited space for a short period of time and the pressure to make a big score were a perfect recipe for risky behavior. But at the same time, fishermen felt themselves under increasing pressure to hire pilots in order to stay competitive.

The combination of economic and safety concerns led to political fallout as multiple groups became embroiled in issues of profit and loss, especially between those fishermen who could afford aviation assistance and those who could not. The state stepped in and passed a ban on spotting in 1988 within the salmon fishery.

More debate followed and it was repealed the following year but then succeeded by a ban within Prince William Sound and Bristol Bay, which resulted in a court battle between the Alaska Fish Spotters Association and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game concerning Bristol Bay. The case culminated in a 1992 Alaska Supreme Court decision affirming the right of the department to ban aerial salmon spotting in the bay.

Meanwhile, as the herring industry in particular relied more and more on aircraft, the movement toward some level of standardization continued, especially under the auspices of the Alaska Fish Spotters Association. In 1992 a member of the organization, Ron Gribble, spoke to the Pacific Fishing about his hopes for the future:

Similarities exist, suggests Gribble, between the state of his chosen profession now and that of another aviation offshoot, crop dusting, in earlier years. He notes that great strides were made in that industry when they finally got organized. "Now they have their own FAA regulation, they have their own schools for safety instruction, how to mix chemicals properly, all kinds of stuff. That's the vision I have for us down the line, the safety schools, professional standards and pilot schools; because knowing how to fly a plane is just the start of fish spotting. You've got to know how to navigate, you've got to know the water, you've got to know how to land in all kinds of water conditions. You've got to know the wind, the boats, how to watch for reefs, rocks, tides, all kinds of weather."

In 1996, the pilots accepted guidelines, including requiring a commercial pilot certificate to do the job. FAA regulations remained unchanged, although an inspector at the time told the Anchorage Daily News they would be "...stepping up enforcement efforts in fisheries where spotter pilots are permitted to make sure pilots are qualified and planes are airworthy."

But these efforts were enjoyed only briefly by Gribble, who was the pilot killed along with his spotter in the 1997 mid-air crash near Galena Bay.

Nationally, fish spotting has been the subject of many articles over the years, but lately the discussion has turned to the potential use of drones. Alaska banned their use in hunting last year, and as reported by Alaska Dispatch News earlier this month, their use in commercial salmon spotting will not be permitted. As the technology continues to evolve, the question of drone use for all commercial fishing will continue to come up, and could potentially bring about just as dramatic change to the industry as aircraft did.

Few people can likely imagine a sky full of drones during herring season, but decades ago no one expected to see airplanes either.