As a teenager, Paul Roth didn’t want to be a commercial salmon fisherman. He’d been fishing with his family since childhood and he didn’t like it one bit.
Paul’s father, Mark, came to Alaska from Wisconsin seeking opportunities. He started working construction jobs and eventually moved to Alaska. By the time Paul was born, Mark had become a commercial salmon fisherman, who took all of his sons (Paul, Robert, James, and Alex) fishing with him. As the older brothers became adults, they began to fish on other boats.
“While my brothers were fishing for other people making more money, I was unable to do that, maybe because I was the youngest. I was stuck.”
But a couple of years in regular employment as a young adult made Paul realize he enjoyed being his own boss and being in charge. This brought him back to commercial fishing when at 21-years-old he purchased his own salmon permit, seiner, and gear and started fishing for himself in lower Cook Inlet.
“The processors weren’t paying hardly anything for fish at that time. It was cheap to get in, but I still managed to lose money the first two or three years of fishing because of the low prices.”
Paul stayed the course though and now admits that he loves being a fisherman. It allows him not only economic opportunity, but also a seasonality to his life so that he can pursue other interests when not fishing. And he enjoys the excitement of it.
“You never know what you are going to get every day. It’s competitive and I’m very competitive.”
Life between two states
When not on the water, Paul channels his energy into construction and remodeling projects, creating homes in both Alaska and Tennessee. These are the two states where he and his family split their time.
Paul brings “lightly-crashed cars” back to life and sells them. This was a skill he picked up as a young teenager working in his dad’s truck salvage yard. The yard also had a car dealer license so Paul and his brothers started going to dealer car auctions to buy, fix, and sell cars.
More recently, Paul has taken up bee keeping at his Alaska home in Homer. His passion for “do-it-yourself” projects stems from the satisfaction of building something tangible with his own hands.
On Team Pink
If CIAA had salmon teams, Paul would definitely be on Team Pink Salmon! He became a Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association (CIAA) Board Director in 2011 representing the Inlet Wide Commercial Fishermen. He purposefully joined CIAA the same year that the CIAA Board opened up Tutka Bay Lagoon Hatchery after nearly a decade of suspension due to poor pink prices. Paul saw an opportunity to help make CIAA’s pink salmon program successful at Tutka Bay Lagoon and later at Port Graham Hatchery.
Paul acknowledges that CIAA’s pink program has been up and down with inconsistent returns. He is hopeful that with steady staffing and operational consistency, the pink program could be more dependably successful. He is also happy that CIAA has built a successful sockeye program after many years of struggling with the broodstock.
Although hatchery operations are Paul’s primary interest, he is enthusiastic about CIAA’s Paint River Fish Ladder. “There is still so much potential for Paint River to blow up one day with huge numbers of fish coming back. That could be the lasting legacy of Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association.”
Paul is concerned and frustrated by the political pressures on salmon aquaculture and commercial fishing across Alaska, most notably the shifting policies by government agencies. This makes operations even more difficult for CIAA and other aquaculture associations when the long-term planning needed for successful salmon production is threatened by political swings.
After a short break from the board in 2022, Paul rejoined the board in 2024 as a Cook Inlet Seiners Association representative. He serves on the Finance Committee, helping to provide fiduciary governance to CIAA. Paul has a knack for breaking numbers down such as cost-per-fish for raising them to the fry or smolt stage at one of CIAA’s hatcheries. His financial acumen is an asset to the CIAA board.
You would never know talking to Paul now that he was once an unhappy teenager that hated commercial fishing! We are grateful for his service to CIAA and the salmon fisheries of the Cook Inlet region.
