Some time ago there was a good article about Iceland; perhaps you read it also. They face similar issues as we do in Alaska, yet they discuss them openly through social conversations in media, theater and music. That impressed me.

For eight years I fished commercially, I also had a career as a teacher, both required sizable  investment and long days of hard work. Over the time I’ve lived in Homer I’ve noticed many behaviors and attitudes. How sad to realize there is a “culture” in our community of trespassing and harvesting uninvited. It’s called stealing. And it’s prevalent. The notion that one can take what someone else has invested in and cultured over several years, astounds me. 

Why is this behavior present?

It’s as if someone walked into your home and helped themselves to your computer, peonies, your pottery, the money in your wallet: what you intended to pay the bills with, what you use to buy groceries and fuel for your family. As if they hauled away your firewood; your sewing machine, time card, your tools. This is not the Alaskan way. It degrades our Kachemak community. Life is challenging enough without neighbors you cannot trust.

 If you want to eat oysters and farmed mussels, buy them from the owners. If you want shrimp or crab, purchase them from the market or invest in pots, line and buoys from the Gear Shed. Anything else is stealing.

Deborah Poore