In the United States, Alaska and California rank first and second respectively in value of their commercial catch. More than 45,000 fishermen are employed annually on 20,000-plus fishing vessels that ply the Pacific from California to the Bering Sea. Important fishing centers in this vast area include Astoria and Newport, Oregon; Kodiak and Petersburg, Alaska; Seattle, Washington, and San Diego, California.
Alaska may be the easiest place for a novice to get into the business of harvesting the sea. More than half of the fishermen employed in the Pacific are in Alaskan waters. Because of its relative isolation from large population centers, Alaska is a state which continues to offer tremendous job opportunities. The docks of Kodiak, in the Gulf of Alaska, are humming year round because of the overlapping seasons of shrimp, salmon, crab, and halibut.
Figure your Alaska pre-employment expenses at $25 to $30 per day (most hotels charge that much per night alone). You might also consider working first in a cannery, where you are nearly assured of a job. Seattle to Anchorage flying transportation will cost you around $150; in the summer months the Alaska State Ferry System also runs reliable ferries from Seattle up the Inside Passage to Haines for around $100 and up. It rains a great deal in the southeastern part of the state even in winter. The rest of Alaska can have mild weather in summer.
The Salmon Fishery
Salmon hatches from eggs in fresh-water streams and lakes and then migrates downstream to spend its adult life in the open sea. After four to seven years the fish return to the same stream or lake to spawn and then die. In Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, salmon is the principal fish sought commercially, with heaviest concentrations near shore between May and October. The bulk of the catch is landed in July and August. Because the future of stocks depends on the numbers of fish able to migrate upstream and spawn, the salmon catch is one of the most regulated of all. Seasons open and close in various districts as determined by the different state fish and game departments.
Salmon are caught commercially by three different methods: purse seining, trolling, and gill netting. You'll want to know the details of each.
Purse seining for salmon: A purse seine is a long rectangle of net with corks attached to the topside for flotation and a bottom line strung with lead weights to keep the net vertical in the water. The seine is stored on the stern of the mother ship. A secondary vessel, the power skiff, takes control of one end of the net. With both boats plying in opposite directions, the seine is set out in the water. When the salmon are running in schools, the skiffman will bring his end back around to the main boat quickly, thus encircling the fish. But, more likely, the skipper instructs the skiffperson by radio to maneuver the seine into a C formation that faces the oncoming tide because salmon move with it. Once the skiff reaches the mother ship it relinquishes control of its part of the net. Now, with the seine in a circular form in the water, a purseline is drawn in like a pursestring to close up the bottom of the net. A shallow bowl has been created of the webbing and corks still in the sea, from which salmon lack the imagination to escape.
Too technical? You'll require some of this knowledge before you can get hired.
A hydraulically powered pulley, "power block," begins bringing in one end of the seine. As the seine winds down through the pulley it is laid out on the stern by three men. One crew member "stacks cork," another "pulls web," and the third "pulls lead" and deals with the rings attached to it.
The procedure, which boils down to placing the seine into the water, encircling the fish, and hauling the net with its bounty back aboard, is called a "set." A fast crew under the right conditions might make fifteen or more sets per day. Each time the fish are pitched into the hatch. Besides salmon, the seine captures extraneous matter such as jellyfish, which sting when they are splashed onto bare skin. You'll also have to deal with a mess of seaweed.
Crew size on a salmon seiner varies with the skipper's preference and the labor supply. The bare minimum is five men (women get jobs occasionally, too) including the skipper. The average number of crew is about seven, though some boats have up to ten. Because of the large crew size and the variety of duties, a beginner has the best chances of getting aboard a seiner. (I recall two young men from Kansas who landed jobs only one day before the season was to open.)
Salmon seiners can easily be recognized by the power skiff which they carry piggyback on the stern when not in use. The large round power block that hangs from the boom is also quite prominent. The ships range from 40 to 60 feet in length and have a low house forward and work space aft. You should be able to notice the seine with its stacked corks on the stern.
Where? There are purse seine fleets in Chignik, Kodiak, Kenai, Homer, Valdez, Cordova, Hoonah, Sitka, Kake, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Hydaburg, and Klawock, Alaska. The purse seine fishery is not active along the coasts of Washington southward.
When? For seiners the season usually opens in early July. Get to the docks by the third week of June to begin looking for a boat. In the Cooper River area (Cordova) an earlier season begins in late May or early June. Salmon seining slows down in September and is normally over by October.
Specifics: Salmon seining is not a particularly dangerous fishery as Pacific fisheries go. But, there are definite dangers, and the burn of jellyfish (especially in southeastern Alaska) is to be endured most of the day. One of the pleasant aspects of seining for salmon is the proximity of the shore and wildlife you can observe.
When Stephen worked for two months in 1977 on an above-average boat in southeastern Alaska, his gross earnings were about $4,100, after taxes. Food and fuel costs were deducted, and the "greenhorn" still ended up with $2,500 for two months' work.
If you don't manage to get on a boat by the time the season starts, you may want to try getting a job on a cannery tender. You'll be earning an okay sum per day and you'll be in close contact with numerous skippers should an opening occur. You'll also gain some experience in operating hydraulic equipment and other useful skills.
Gill netting for salmon. The gill net, a long straight net with floats on the top edge and weights on the bottom, hangs in the water like a wall. Gill netting is usually done from smaller vessels in the 20-to 50-foot range. Most of this type of fishing is a two-man operation, although some boats may have three crew members. A gill netter is often managed by a man and his wife or a father and son. For these reasons greenhorns won't find it an easy fishery to crack without contacts.
Gill netters are recognizable by the drum, which looks like a giant spool mounted on the stern which sets and retrieves the net. The mesh of the gill net is a fine nylon web, translucent green in color.
The most productive salmon district in all of Alaska is Bristol Bay (on the north side of the Alaskan peninsula-really part of the Bering Sea). This region is dominated by gill netters. Dillingham, Togiak, and Naknck are important fishing communities in this area. Elsewhere in Alaska one can find gill net fleets in Kodiak, Kenai, Anchorage, Homer, Seldovia, Valdez, Cordova, Yakutat, Douglas, Hoonah, Kake, Sitka, Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, and Hydaburg. There is a significant gill net fishery in the Puget Sound region: Port Townsend, Bellingham, and Seattle, Washington. The Columbia River is the scene of a large gill net fishery centered in Astoria, Oregon.
When? As with the purse seine fishery the season is heavily regulated. The bulk of the catch is made in July and August. In the Puget Sound area the season lasts well into September. In the Columbia River the season is very long, lasting from May to October.
Specifics: Because of the small crew a fisherman on a gill netter can earn fantastic sums depending on the conditions. In Bristol Bay individual crew members can make $10,000 in three months. The owner of the boat earns much more. But because of their more limited range a gill netter may do very poorly if a certain area sees few fish or if the decrees of the Fish and Game Department are to their disadvantage.
Salmon trolling: In troll fishing, long lines with lures or baited hooks are towed behind a slow-moving boat. Four lines is the usual number. To achieve spatial distribution of the lines, outriggers or spreader poles slant from the side of the vessel. The fishing lines are attached to tag lines which are fastened to the trolling poles. When salmon strike the lure, a bell at the end of the pole rings and alerts the fisherman.
A crew member, "puller," on this small boat (20 to 45 feet) will have to perform a wide range of tasks. A puller works the lines, rebaits or resets them, navigates at intervals, cooks, cleans fish and ices them down, cuts bait, and keeps the boat tidy. Trolling is considered by most fishermen to be an art in itself, since there are so many variables to contend with (type of bait, or lure, depth these are fished, area to fish, speed of trolling, and so forth). There is much opportunity for learning, especially if you get on with an oldtimer who is willing to teach you.
But many trailers are operated by single fishermen; his wife may join him, or a buddy. Rarely does a greenhorn find work on a trailer. Women often have a better chance in this regard. A female companion out on the lonely seas is considered a great asset by quite a number of single fishermen.
In many fishing communities trollers make up the majority of the boats. Trollers are most easily singled out by their paired outriggers, long poles which are secured in a vertical position when not in use and generally tower over the rest of the boat.
Where? There are sizable trolling fleets in Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, and Wrangell, Alaska. In the Puget Sound area of Washington there are numerous trolling centers: Port Townsend, Bellingham, and Seattle. In small ports along the entire West Coast there are little groups of trollers. Newport, Astoria, and Coos Bay, Oregon, and Eureka, California, are host to trolling fleets.
When? In Alaska the salmon troll fishery begins in June and continues through until September. In Washington and Oregon it begins in May and may continue through October as in California.
Specifics: Trollers are the most common fishing vessels off the coasts of Washington and Oregon. A puller will earn from $1,500 to $3,000 during a season. As with any fishery where hooks are involved, the danger of injury and subsequent infection ("fish poisoning") is more severe. Because trollers are smaller they are much more disturbed in turbulent waters. If foul weather catches a troller on the open sea, a puller may have to resort to hand pumps or buckets to keep his boat afloat. Few trollers have such luxuries as toilets or showers (as some seiners and gill netters do). Quarters are more cramped, and if you tend toward claustrophobia, I would not suggest that you work on a troller.
Because of the intimate conditions on such a small boat, most skippers of trollers would never consider taking anyone aboard they didn't know well or who wasn't recommended to them by a reliable source.
The Northern Shrimp Fishery
The Alaskan shrimp fishery is a relatively new one. Only since the late fifties has the shrimp fishery developed serious commercial proportions. In the mid seventies Alaskan fishermen landed more shrimp than Texas or Louisiana Gulf shrimpers. The per boat yield is substantially higher for Alaskan boats than for Gulf of Mexico boats.
Shrimp are a bottom-dwelling species, traveling in large schools. They are harvested with trawl gear (as opposed to troll gear). The most widely used trawl is the otter trawl. It is constructed of heavy nylon webbing and shaped so that when pulled behind the boat it takes on the shape of a broad-mouthed funnel. The mouth of the otter trawl is kept open by metal doors secured to both sides of the trawl. Each of these doors, or boards, is fitted with chains which are fastened to towing cables from the trawling vessel. The resistance of the water to the forward motion of the boards as they are pulled at different angles and in opposite directions is what keeps the net open.
When the skipper feels he has trawled long enough, the towing cables are brought in and the trawl is hoisted aboard. The socklike end, called the "cod end," is then opened and the shrimp and other sea creatures spill out on deck. The fish and algae are sorted out of the shrimp and thrown overboard. The shrimp are then shoveled into the flush hatches on deck and layered with ice by another crew member.
Shrimp trawlers are usually gone from port for three or four days depending on the distance to the fishing grounds; they may have trips as brief as two days before they bring their catch to the cannery to be processed. As with almost every other fishery, the crew will be busy in port procuring food, fuel, and other supplies before returning to the fishing grounds.
In the Alaskan fishery, most shrimp boats carry a crew of three or four men; there are smaller shrimp trawlers that get by with two men, and others which have up to five crew members.
You can spot a shrimp boat by the double towing booms, or else huge steel outriggers, that are secured to the main mast. During the season their sterns are covered with net gear and the large metal doors (like giant hinges) are made fast in racks on both sides. Sometimes the trawl is wound on a big spool mounted on the stern. This is especially true with smaller vessels.
Where? Kodiak is the focus of the Alaskan shrimp fishery. However, if you beat the docks of only the main boat harbor there you will miss many shrimpers who are tied up at cannery wharves. Elsewhere in Alaska try Chignik and Petersburg. There is a minor shrimp fishery in Newport and Coos Bay, Oregon.
When? The Kodiak shrimp fishery begins in April and after a slack period in May continues through the year until December. The most productive time, when the most boats are engaged in the fishery, is July and August.
Specifics: The doors of shrimp trawl weigh up to 1,500 pounds. In rough weather these doors may sway back and forth while they are being lifted out of the water. If a crew member is not extremely careful he can be struck and seriously injured. There is great tension on the towing lines and always the possibility of malfunction. Also, during the later months of the season the weather can become very nasty, and more than one shrimp boat has gone down in waters so cold that even the strongest man could survive only five minutes.
Crew members on average boats do well, especially because of the relatively long season: $2,000 to $3,000 per month is reasonable pay. The more experienced the skipper, the more he is familiar with the shrimping grounds, the more the shrimp boat will haul in, and the more money each individual crew member will earn.
One tried-and-true strategy for getting on a shrimp boat is to work at a cannery that processes shrimp (see section later in this chapter on canneries). The secret is to get on the unloading crew, where you will have the most frequent contact with skippers and crew members of the boats. Every time a boat comes in, talk to the skipper and let him know you want to work for him. Do exceptional work on the unloading crew, and the word will eventually trickle to the interested skipper. Be informed about dates when vessels will be heading out to the grounds again, and appear just before they do to make sure they are not shorthanded. Greet the skipper wherever you see him and tell him frequently that you want to go shrimping. Assure him you'll fish for free on the first trip.
The best time to start working at a shrimp cannery (in Kodiak) is at the beginning of the season. At this time some boats are still assembling or testing their crews. You have far less competition at that point than in summer when the docks of Kodiak are crawling with greenhorns.
Canneries are mentioned at this point because they may be your fastest route to working on a boat. (You will sometimes meet skippers and crew members in the processing plants.) It is also important for you to find out the starting date of any fishery season; one good place to gather this intelligence might be an Alaskan State Employment Center. Counselors here will know about canneries (and the fleet) in their specific region. Too, the employment offices may have occasional listings for experienced fishing personnel.
The following list may prove useful for personal calls, and in some instances, for a written inquiry. Ditto for the listed Fish and Game Department or the Fisheries Service.
Valuable Alaska Addresses
Dillingham Employment Center
Box 261, Dillingham, AK 99576 Kenai Employment Center
Inlet Industries Building, Beaver Loop & Trading Bay Rds.,
Drawer 1091, Kenai, AK 99611 Ketchikan Employment Center
1734 Tongass Ave., Box 159, Ketchikan, AK 99901 Sitka Employment Center
Cathedral Apartment Building, Box 1189, Sitka, AK 99835 National Marine Fisheries Service
709 W. 9th St., Juneau, AK 99801 Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Subport Building, Juneau, AK 99801 Juneau Employment Center
123 Seward St., Juneau, AK 99801 Kodiak Employment Center
Box 1546, Kodiak, AK 99615 Seward Employment Center
Box 875, Seward, AK 99664 Alaska Department of Labor
Employment Service Division, P.O. Box 3-700, Juneau, AK 99801
