Anchorage, Alaska ? How about a job grossing half a million bucks in 60 minutes?

That’s what some commercial seine fishermen in Sitka, Alaska, scooped out of the water on Wednesday – in the form of fatty, silvery Pacific herring.

The Sitka sac roe herring fishery is already legendary for netting megabucks in minutes, but that day’s catch was still a shocker – for fishermen, regulators and seafood processors.

Expecting healthy numbers of spawning fish, state biologists are allowing seiners to harvest a record-breaking amount of herring in Southeast Alaska’s Sitka Sound this year – 14,723 tons.

But in just two stunning hauls on Wednesday afternoon, the fishermen netted more than 10,000 tons of fish – most of their quota.

At a price of $550 per ton of herring, that was at least a $5.5 million day.

Some eight to 10 boats each bulged their nets with 500 or more tons of Pacific herring in the first 30-minute opening, said Chip Treinen of Anchorage, Alaska, a seine fisherman who participated in the fishery.

That’s like hauling up several blue whales or fully-loaded 747s. Ordinary seine boats can’t carry that much weight. The fish have to be pumped out of the nets while they are still in the water, he said.

The commercially-caught herring, which are also highly valued by Southeast Natives for their eggs, are exported to Japan for their roe.

About 50 permit holders jockeyed for a sweet spot on the water near Kruzof Island on Wednesday, fishermen and biologists said Friday.

But as usual, the big hauls were made by a few lucky boats. Treinen said he was one of the lucky ones but declined to reveal his total catch.

“For those of us who were in the area … we were like kids in a candy store,” he said.

The huge hauls were mainly due to the unique spot the herring chose to spawn, said Treinen.