18 May 2007. Dark beach on a dark coast, Sakhalin, the Russian far east--dal'ny vostok. Worn siding of an abandoned fishing fleet--boats pulled up on shore, rockfish and cod. Hexigrammidae--greenlings--herring, too, massive schools, a churning swirl in blackened waters. The Kuriles, Hokkaido north. And the Ainu--their homeland marked in dull orange on the map's run of gray. "An isolate language group"--like the Basque, the Greeks, even--hills and islands...a view to the sea. "Salmon so fat and pink, we haven't seen anything like it since the fifties..." Oil, too--a massive platform balanced on sand... "like a bar of soap," in 60 foot waves, melting ice, endless Pacific tides...
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