Seaside Aroma

Written May 22nd

For all of us Southeast Alaskan-ers, the words “seaside aroma” probably don’t bring to mind the most pleasant odors. Seaweed, kelp, muddy/sand/gook, rotting fish, beach asparagus, burning garbage, dumping honey buckets, and salt - this is known to us locals as the “low tide smell.” A phrase that is not at all uncommon to hear is “ohp, smells like low tide.” However, although the odor is sometimes close to unbearable, I love the memories that come to mind when thinking about low tide. The Annual Port Alexander Troll Closure Opens (golf tournaments) are always held during the lowest tide of the summer, so you can only imagine the wonderful smells of that two-day tournament. But, even though we are all playing golf on the beach, during the lowest tide of the year, sinking up to our knees in the muddy/sand/gook that just never wants to come all the way off, and having to spend two morning breathing in the “seaside aroma,” it doesn’t get to us. The smell is completely tolerable when you are surrounded by friends participating in the longest-running golf tournament in Alaska - chugging a beer before the tournament starts (usually around 6am) doesn‘t hurt either.

Oh man, but what about March in Southeast Alaska. All the Alaskans I’m sure know what I’m getting at. March brings us to Herring Season! So, added onto the already sometimes almost unbearable smells that make their way from the beach, in March, as hard as this may be to believe, it gets worse. When the herring spawn, our beaches are flooded with herring eggs, and then closely followed by herring carcasses. At first it isn’t even that bad. There is just a little extra salt in the air, but after a couple days, when the eggs have been sitting on the beach rotting, it starts to get pretty pungent. This smell is strong enough to draw every bear in a 50 mile radius down to the beach to gorge themselves, even though it is only March and we would all be 100 times happier if they would all stay in their dens for a couple more months before deciding to make their way out of hibernation!

Ok, seaside aromas are not all terrible smelling. I have to admit that that first time back out on the boat fishing with my dad every summer, the smells were always wonderful. Well, not the diesel smell, I can just never get used to it. It makes me seasick, and I think it always will. But, the other smells. I would always ride out on deck for our first trip from Sitka to Port Alexander - mostly because inside I would feel seasick, but also because I just liked soaking up all the smells. It is that salty/sweet smell of the ocean that will always keep me returning to Southeast Alaska no matter where my life takes me. I smell that smell every time I go back home after any sort of time down in the states (as in the continental US) - stepping out of the airport, it is just there. In any seaside community, that salty/sweet ocean smell is always there, and when you are not around it for a while, you miss it; and when you are around it for a while, you tend to forget it is there. It is weird how going out on the boat just makes that smell so much stronger, though. Because during that first trip to Port Alexander ever summer, I would just lay on the hatch cover on deck taking deep breaths of that salty/sweet ocean breeze, and I would, for a little while, be able to forget that I was going to be stuck on that boat for the rest of my precious summer.

You may be wondering why I am currently going off about “seaside aromas.” My host mom back in Los Planes gave me a shower gel and it is called - wait for it…”seaside aromas.” I didn’t read the scent when I first received the gift, but I pulled it out today to use and actually looked at what it was called. I just couldn’t imagine what sort of scent it was going to have. Because, as I explained , when I first read the words “seaside aroma” I did not think of good scents. The last thing I need to do after running for 45 minutes in 80+ degree heat, is jump in a cold shower and soap up with seaweed/mud smelling shower gel. Obviously it doesn’t have that scent - to be completely honest, I can’t figure out how this shower gel resembles a “seaside aroma” what so ever. I guess I would explain it as a more floral scent, but then again - no, not really. But, I can tell you that it in no way smells like any seaside I have ever had the opportunity to smell, and I have been to my fair share of seaside: Alaska, Washington, California, Florida, Virginia, New York, Minnesota (Lake Superior is basically an ocean), Italy, Greece, Dubrovnik, England, and France.