Held up in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor

Jan 24, 2009

Due to the nature of this fishery I'm now in, it is unlikely to venture more than 12-16 hours from port and the cannery. There is no processing on board this time. The fish are actually stored in a "live tank" directly under the deck of the boat. When fishing is good, the boat could be filled up in 3 days of good tows. If fishing is not so good, and the fish are hiding, it will probably take closer to 5 or 6 days. There will be a lot more time spent inland at port this time around than last. There is rumor from the captain that we could held up in port for close to 5 days on the first offload. All that time I'll be getting paid the same as if I was at sea, but I'll be inland and probably spending money here and there. As nice as it will be to keep in touch much easier this time around, I was looking forward to the kind of isolation this job can provide.

This boat fishes using a large net thrown out the back of the boat. It tows the net for 4 to 12 hours at a time depending on the density of the fish. A typical tow with yield close to 90 metric tons. I personally only deal with around 300 to 500 kgs of each tow. I work in a small area on deck away from the large net with my sampling tools. My responsibilities are to give an average weight of the target fish, and all the by catch as well. By catch is all the fish caught that is not the target fish. My job is to identify all the fish within my sample, give average weights and then take specimen samples from specific fish in order to help the fishery get a better picture of age, sex, weight, length, population, and area of population for the fish being caught in the fishery.

I hope that last paragraph gives you a better idea to exactly what it is that I do while I'm out at sea. Mostly I eat, sleep, watch movies, and read. There is a lot of down time, and I am left with a lot of time to think. Life is simple and straight forward. There are no social obligations. My day isn't planned around what is on TV that day. The biggest concern I have is to make sure to make a new pot of coffee if you drank the last drop. A mistake only made once. A side note, this boat has liquid creamer. A treat I did not enjoy on the last two boats. Liquid creamer was reserved for the Captain and mates use only. A stash I dipped into a couple of times when I was ballsy enough to ask, and they were generous enough to oblige.

As you could imagine, the stressless life style of this job is extremely inviting. For me, it was a feeling acquired rather than innate. I've know a handful of people whom I trained with, who could not stand the weeks to months of silence from family, friends, and society. Those who have taken to this job, look forward to it. This week at sea, 3-5 days on land, then a week at sea followed by 3-5 days on land is rather annoying. Now having been at sea for 43 straight days, 21 or 30 doesn't seem so bad. It actually seems inviting. The one upside to being in and out of port so often, I can keep this blog more up to date. Something I know my parents will enjoy. This fishery is uneventful to say the least. So for this contract I think I will focus more on the island of Dutch Harbor and the history of the surrounding the different parts of the island. I will spending a lot of time on it, and I suspect I will run into a couple of characters here and there that will bring an interesting story. If you have an specific questions that I could answer, please ask.


- Casey