Captain Nestor Ivanov sports a handsome gray beard and is the proud father of six children. He has two daughters and four sons all of whom help him on his boat at various times, and on this trip he had two sons out with him. He and his crew are a bit weary as they just completed a very successful salmon season in Cook Inlet. His is the user group that was “allowed” to harvest salmon under the ADF&G management plan, and they went from one Emergency Order Opening to the next. These Drift Fishermen went nearly non-stop for the entire sockeye season, for a two week stretch fishing around the clock. Quite the contrast for the 780 St Net families and crew that watched them sitting idly from the beach. Captian Ivanov just switched from gillnet, having just completed a very successful salmon season in Cook Inlet, to long-line gear to fish halibut and has several more trips in Area 3A.
Nestor is part of the Russian Orthodox community which is strong in both Oregon and Alaska. He was raised in Oregon but moved up to Alaska in 1989. He began his fishing career,however, in 1987 in Prince William Sound when he acquired his first boat and permit working a salmon gillnetter. Nestor upgraded and began fishing cod and halibut when he purchased the FV Outlook in 1994 and the vessel can hold 22,000 of dressed halibut.
Pacific Halibut are gutted onboard and their bellies are iced and their heads remain on. Halibut that are well cared for like this hold up amazingly well and as soon as they are offloaded the belly ice is removed, fresh scoops of flake ice are put in the belly cavity and they are size graded and toted to move down the Alaska Highway to markets across the lower 48 states and Canada. The boat is home ported in Homer Alaska where Nestor makes his home
