Jobs:Purse Seiner Alaska Fisherman

From Lazer

Worked out of Seattle, WA Fishermen Terminal. The job would start at about the end of May and end about the beginning of September. I worked this job for 2 summers.

The job starts out in May with getting the equipment ready for the season. The tasks that need to be performed are:

• Repainting the boat
• Running through the net and sowing up holes
• Buying food and supplies for 3 months

This part of the job lasts until the end of June, so for about a month. At this time I would be sleeping on the boat that is docked at Fishermen's Terminal.

On around June 22 the journey begins. A five day trip from Seattle, WA to Ketchikan, AK is started.

Once in Ketchikan we would start our first day at the hatchery release about 3 days out from town. The hatchery lease is a very stressful and exciting fishing. Almost all the purse seining vessels are all packed in this squared off area to get a first fish run of the year. All the fishing vessels come the this opening because it is the only one this early in the year. Most of the fish that are release are dog salmon (Chum) which is the second to lowest price per pound. Dog salmon are really toothy and would get caught in the net. During pulling in the net the portion of the net coming out of the water and going up into the block would carry the dog salmon the got caught in the net. Whenever we saw a caught fish moving up the net we would call toother. Then Paul (the captain) would stop the net and I would sake out the fish.

Removing the fish from the net was not as easy as it seems. Sometimes the fish would be so tangled and wrapped up in the net that it would take all three of us 5 or so minutes to get them out. The whole time that we are trying to unwrap the fish the Captain is yelling at us to hurry up. The captain would start yelling "They are JUMPING OUT OF the NET!". Then if we took to long the captain would just start the block up and just grind the fish through.