To fulfill their duties and obligations, the Alaska Board of Fisheries members must travel, sometimes a lot.

Members come from across the state and some travel considerable distances on a regular basis to participate in board functions. Meetings are scheduled in far-flung places to address issues in the respective fisheries the board regulates. Fact-finding trips occur which expose various members to unfamiliar fisheries and allow them to gather information to be presented to the entire board about those fisheries. Representing the board in a wide variety of meetings with other government agencies is also a regular travel item.

Since I’ve been involved, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that is unique in my traveling experiences. I hesitate to say board travel is cursed, but I’m not sure how else to describe the events that have occurred, mostly to other board members, but to me as well. One board member has been affected by this “curse” perhaps more than any other. For instance, he has been booked into a hotel room which was already occupied. This incident caused both parties some surprise and concern, until the error was corrected and the board member was offered another “unoccupied” room.

This same member had a one-week run during a major regulatory meeting where almost every meal he ordered was messed up. As an example, I had lunch with him one day when he had ordered a salad. Expecting a large serving when the order arrived, he was chagrined to find six spinach leaves, about a slice of crumbled bacon and four cherry tomatoes were all that comprised his $20 salad order, and no dressing was offered!

When he had checked into his room for this same meeting, he found, after going to bed, that the sheets felt “scratchy.” After turning on the light and throwing back the covers, he found a considerable quantity of crumbled potato chips scattered between the sheets. Apparently, housekeeping had neglected to clean the room or make the bed with fresh bedding before this board member was checked in. At least he had snacks to make up for the miniscule salad he had dealt with earlier in the day!

My own experiences are more limited. At one regulatory meeting, several board members and an equal number of department staff had gone out to dinner together and were eating at the highly recommended and favorite restaurant of one of the local area staff members.

Three of us at the table had ordered a seafood gumbo/chowder which tasted great. As I was chewing a mouthful, I noticed something hard in my mouth. Thinking it was probably a piece of clam shell, I gently pushed the item through my lips and into my waiting fingers. I was quite surprised to find a half-tarnished penny in my grasp!

After commenting on my “lucky” find, I continued eating. The staffer who had recommended the restaurant was embarrassed and called the situation to the notice of our server, who, in turn, talked with the chef. I ended up with a free dinner, profuse apologies and a lot of teasing from the other diners about how I must have sneaked a penny into my dinner!

I’ve just recently returned from a fact-finding trip with two other board members to Bristol Bay. During the night, after a six-hour hearing in the first community, the phone rang in one member’s room about 2:30 in the morning. Nobody knew we were at this establishment, so a call was totally unexpected. He picked up the receiver, set it down and unplugged the phone so he could get some sleep.

About a half-hour later, someone was banging on his door. Thinking there might be a problem, he sleepily answered the door, only to find two inebriated women outside, looking for a previous resident of the room. He quickly closed and relocked his door!

We spent the next morning sitting in the airport for four hours waiting for a substitute plane to fly us to our next destination, since the scheduled aircraft had suffered an engine failure the evening before while landing at the airport. This is not a situation unique to board member travel in the bush, but the ticket agent had definitely gotten our attention on check-in with her comment that there would be a delay because the scheduled plane had “crashed” while landing.

After another five-hour hearing in the second community, the “babe magnet” board member and I had dinner at a local restaurant. After taking a couple of sips from his martini, this person noticed a large fly-type creature submerged in his drink. The fly had been hidden from view by the olive when the drink was served. He immediately lost interest in finishing the libation.

When the waitress returned to take our food order, my friend pointed out the fly in his drink, which the waitress quickly returned to the bartender. A fresh drink was delivered to the table and, after our orders were served, we ate dinner keeping a close eye on every bite!

These are just some events to illustrate this “curse of board travel.” At least, that’s what I’m calling it!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.