Here are writings from sea. As well as a few pictures. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think and if you have any other questions about the Gulf of Alaska. Tomorrow I fly to Dutch Harbor to get my next assignment.
5/3/09
Kodiak
I arrived to beautiful Kodiak and the 60 degree weather that made every local I met sweat through their first shirt. The flight in was much more then I expected it to be. I got to fly from Anchorage to Kodiak without a cloud between my and the Ocean. It was a quick one hour flight packed with the local high school track team coming back from a regional competition. Yes their track team flies Alaska airlines to go to a “regional” track meet.
The island is vast and open, save the abundance of timber covering the island. A traveling hunters destination, it was easy to picture the large Kodiak Bear, Deer, and the rest of the game that rich men travel extreme distances for a week long guided hike with a rifle. There were multiple such men on this flight as well. I over heard them as they all discussed how many times they had made this pilgrimage before, what they brought home, what the new cats should expect to see, etcetera.
As for myself, I arrive on this island alone and carrying 150 lbs of gear and sampling equipment. Unlike Dutch Harbor, my company does not have a bunk house or a person designated to take us to and fro the island and get us to our boat. To my delight, my boss answered my phone call with news of delay from the boat.... 60 degree weather, myself with a hotel on the company, hiking trails starting from steps outside of downtown.... I get paid for this?
I know it sounds weird the first place that I would walk to, once I get my gear to my hotel and get settled and changed, would be to the dock. You may think that I’m going to get enough of the ocean in the up coming months to fill my cup. Its a clear 60 degree spring day in a brand new Alaskan city. I could never get tired staring into the ocean and walking the docks on days like those. I tired a hike to the top of the hill looking over downtown Kodiak and City Harbor, but I wasn’t sure where I was allowed to walk and where I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to be stepping on any toes my first day there, and the lady at the hotel desk was no help with where I should take my hiking boots. So the harbor it was. Never second best in my heart.
The next day I started my 3rd voyage out to sea aboard my vessel. They picked me up at the dock at 1500 Alaska standard time, and we embarked a couple of hours later. First impression of the crew and captain were great. This vessel is another longlineing vessel fishing for Sablefish (Black Cod). I thought at first this could be another 20-30 day trip like I had on my last longliner during B season last October, but the Captain quickly told me hell no, they’d be dropping me off in Southeast Alaska in no more than 8 days. I head swiveled around and I said gave him the biggest, “you better not be kidding me son” look I’ve ever thrown and someone. Southeast Alaska in the spring? I started admittedly hoping that I get stuck there for no less than 3 days. I have been plotting a way to lose a month of my life in Southeast AK either this summer or next. A 3 day head start in Spring will come as a welcomed gift from my employer.
I get paid for this....
5/08/09
Alaskan Icing
“... You mean, Like the Deadliest Catch?”
“ No, Deadlier .....”
I must admit, that show was a factor in me deciding to take this job. It had to be. That show is the only actual representation for what I was getting myself into. Before taking this job in July, Discovery channel just so happened to serendipitously playing a marathon. OK maybe not so serendipitously, since they are always playing a marathon of the Deadliest Catch these days. Why is that? Anyways, I had to make sure that I was going to be OK with the inherent risks that come with this occupation. Of course the first boat I get assigned to, a crab pot boat fishing for Pacific Cod. I’m staring my apprehension directly in the face...
This being my 3rd contract and wondering how much longer I’m going to continue this job, My mind starts to think back to what got me out here and what I’ve learned and who I am now because of this experience. Having to face that kind of inherent fear face on with no way to back out was a good way to quench the thrill seeking portion of my brain, but will not ultimately be the lasting experience I take away from this job.
Every boat I’ve boarded faces the same danger of those who are portrayed as cowboys who are wanted dead or alive on the Discovery Channel show. Crab is just sexier than Cod or Pollock. I believe that’s what separates those boats from the ones I’ve been on. You see the pay off immediately and obviously in crab in pots. The other boats, its a slower process, and the catch isn’t exactly as clean as the crabbers. Either way, every fishermen out there should receive the same kind of admiration those cats get. The thrill seeking aspect of this job starts when you leave the dock is filled within a couple hours of floating around. You quickly realize its not like the Discovery Channel. A thrill seeking expedition that this adventure might have started as has transformed into so much more.
As I’ve written about before, I’m a visitor. Every boat I get on to, I’m a guest and I have to remember that. Every boat has made me feel welcomed, and I’ve felt nothing but welcomed, but I’m still a guest. I have a job to do that is contrary to the process the boat was designed for. I have to try and design a scientific design around the movement of a floating processing plant. I can’t slow things down and ask for even precise numbers that would be easy to predict and use. This job doesn’t function that way. Never is one haul the same to the last. Quick thinking within parameters of a scientific design are essential. Confidence in yourself and problem solving skills are tools more essential then any measuring equipment I lug aboard these vessels. The confidence I wield is more then just my ability to adjust the design to still fit within parameters yielding readable and comparable results. Its a confidence that the fishermen, mainly the captain, need to hear in my voice, see in my gait, and it can’t ever waver. This confidence lets everyone else know exactly where I stand the moment I walk on the boat. Eliminating any chance relationships created on board will in any way be able effect anything that makes it on to my paper. This confidence allows me to remain unbiased, thus my words and numbers reported are unbiased. Finding this confidence within me is the greatest discover this job has provided. The fact that I also get have this once in a lifetime adventure on top of it, is icing. Oh, we get cake out here too. Packed with icing.
- Casey
5/09/09
Somebody said they saw me
Swinging the world by the tail
Bouncing over a white cloud
Killing the blues
Quick question. When you look out your window at work, if you’re there right now do it quickly, what do you see .....
Do you see this.....
BAM!!!! Sperm Whale coming at ya’ hot.
What? You don’t have one of those outside your window? Oh, I do...
I saw these fellers floating around for a good 20 minutes 300-500 yards over the starboard side feeling us out, and then all of the sudden, they were down. Flukes in the air and diving. It’s common for Sperm Whales to follow longliner boats fishing for Sablefish. They know that fish will be near by and they compete heavily with the boat. Not a welcomed sight for the captain. And to be honest, this one sighting and the next one I had, are all I really needed. I’d much rather a happy boat and crew then my own excitement of whale watching while getting paid.
The possible sighting of the spout of a sperm whale in the back of my mind, has added some excitement to my favorite past time of sipping coffee on the dock staring out into the ocean, smelling the salt water. This has been a great way to start my third trip. I have figured out how to bridge the gap of my relation with the crew members and my duties on board. This crew is relaxed and excellent to work around. This fishery allows me to be outside most of the time, counting fish on a line. Outside with the weather is where I’d rather be on the boat in the first place. With this wonderfully agreeable weather we have experienced the entire trip, I’m getting my fill of day gazing into the ocean. Did I mention I get paid for this?
5/11/09
Be wary the bird that flies directly over head
It may just poop on you....
This may seem like a quip to those who haven’t planted themselves in one spot on the deck of a floating fish factory for hours at a time. But these words hold wisdom gained through, lets call it ... maturity. During daylight hours, our vessel is stalked by over 200 birds feeding on the discards from the factory. Watching the birds fly from port side to starboard speculating which side offers the better deal, I’m caught in between and completely unarmed. An umbrella is an item I will not board a longline fishing vessel again without. I am covered in rubber rain gear in anticipation to battle 30 mph winds, water breaking over the bow of the boat on my back, the rain, and the frigid cold. The rain gear is no help however to stop the humiliation of the uric acid bombs assailing upon me from 15 feet above. There is one man who seems to get full enjoyment from seeing the bombardment that occurs during feces prime time. He sits lofted and looming over the roller man watching his catch come over the roller onto the boat. Because I need the same view to tally the fish coming aboard, I stand directly opposite of the captain’s chair among the elements on the deck above the roller station. While the captain is eating cookies drinking coffee, listening to country music (for some reason all captains love their country music. Its a weird anomaly that I’ve discovered), I stand exposed to four elements of the sea; wind, rain, cold and bird poo. He shoots me a crumb covered smile coupled with the tip of his coffee mug, just as the bright orange bird waste beckon I’m wearing, receives its latest deposit.
All in the name of Science ....
-Casey Franklin
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