For four summers after graduating high school, I went to work in Alaska’s salmon fishing industry. I worked as a deckhand until a few weeks into my second season when I was promoted to engineer. Alaska is an extremely harsh and fast-paced environment. Shifts on the boat would regularly exceed 20 hours. With no cell service or wifi, extremely limited resources, and a limited toolset this job demanded quick thinking and creative problem-solving. This fast-paced and high-stress work made the job both exciting and extremely rewarding, it’s why I came back for four years.
Trying something new! This is a fish offloading system I designed and helped fabricate. This new system helped us offload 6.1 million lbs of fish that season and 8.2 million lbs the following. The old shute system had a highly manual and cumbersome setup process, the new system reduced offload times from 2 hours plus to under an hour.
After catching 1000 lbs of jellyfish, getting stung by many, its easy for things to get tense on the boat. Although Alaska is one of the most beautiful places on earth, the long shifts, bad weather, money on the line, and isolation will do its best to wear you down. Learning how to stay positive and respectful in even the most trying situations is paramount.
