Days at Sea 1: Back at it

I have signed another contract and am headed back to Alaska for the winter season. I dont know how much there will be to post besides...I am cold, today was colder than yesterday, I did not think it could get any colder,etc. I will do my best to find an amusing story or two.

Days at Sea 88: Home Sweet Home

I finally got the email telling me that it is my turn to go home. It came just in time because the scientists who got sent home a couple days after me had to sit in Dutch Harbor for 3-5 days waiting for the fog to lift and planes to fly.

My trip home took a very long time but I did make it. Here is what my itinerary ended up looking like.

4am: go to the ferry dock for the 5am ferry from Akutan to Dutch Harbor
7am: Ferry arrives, the anchor had fallen off at the last stop so it was several hours late
11am: Arrive in Dutch Harbor and get a ticket for the next availible flight
7pm: Fly from Dutch Harbor to Anchorage, AK
midnight: Fly Anchorage to Seattle. I was pretty tired at this point, I dont even remember the safety briefing happening
5am: Land in Seattle and my dad picks me up.
6:30am: 26 hours of travel, 88 days at sea and I am finally HOME!

Days at Sea 82: Choose your friends wisely

It keeps growing and growing

and growing I am up to 7 right now.

I LOVE good fresh local produce, I mean go out of my way, dream about it all winter love the fruits of Eastern Washington and Oregon. So I was sad to have to give it up this summer but oddly I am actually getting a bunch of nectarines up
here.

They ship them up here but there is not enough to give to
everybody but...I have a boyfriend in the galley, in addition to my
forklift boyfriend, bar boyfriend, and sorting belt boyfriend, I hope
they all don't meet each other some day:) (note they all are probably old enough to be my father and from either Mexico or the Philippines and have very limited English so these relationships consist of me smiling and nodding) My galley boyfriend is in charge of all the produce and he started wooing me with 2 nectarines everyday, when I come up to the line for breakfast they call him from the back and he brings them out to me.

They feel like apples so I say 'thank you these are great' then take
them back to my room and wait a week or so, I am acquiring quite a
collection. Yesterday he only brought me 1 and he apologized he had
set 3 aside for me but I was an hour late for breakfast, normally I am
there when the doors open, he couldn't protect them for that long so I
only got 1. This morning he did save me 3 but I told him that was too
many and he let me get away with only taking 2.

Even with these mass produced ones (that are better than I thought
they would be) I still cant wait for a good Yakima nectarine where
the juice is running down my face

Day 73: A Short Hike up a Steep Hill

View of the Plant from the top of the hill



All of the Aleutian Islands are essentially nearly vertical mounds of volcanic rock that go straight into the sea and spread out across the North Pacific. The highest point on a lot of them are between 1,000 and 2,000 feet, so a hill to anyone on the West coast and a mountain to anyone on the East Coast. After looking at the sea for 2 months they look huge so I will refer to them as mountains for the rest of this post.


A lot of observers like to hike, I hate walking up hills for just about any reason, so I have never gone along. Until yesterday. The mountains take off from right behind my bunkhouse and they look very daunting, but yesterday my friend from training, Laurie, and another observer waiting for his boat to show up, Jack, decided to go and since I enjoy spending time with both of them, I decided to go. Also I thought since I had such good company the mountains did not look quite so daunting that day. We started the hike and we were almost to the top when we broke through the low fog. It was at that point that I realized that the fog had been hiding the top half of the mountain, it was an optical illusion not good company that made the hike seem more doable. Since they had slept all morning while I had been working, I got them to take a picture with me, called it the top and then climbed down the moutain by myself to go to bed. On the way down I slipped on some mud and landed on my bum in the grass, nobody was around to see so I just got up and kept going.

When I got back to my room I reached in my pocket to find my keys and they were not there, I assumed they fell out when I fell but I really needed to go to sleep. The next day when I was working one of the other vessel observers who is really into hiking was going up the hill (there is only one path). As a joke I told her to look out for my keys and when she came back 2 hours later she had a big smile and said "look what I found" and pulled my keys out of her pocket! Case and point...everything always works out it Jessicaworld.

Oh and I cant find the cord to my camera so I cant post the pictures of the hike

Days at Sea 67: My job is thankfully not a brain surgeon

My cubical:


This is what I do when I am not watching a conveyor belt of boats offloads. I look inside the fish to figure out if it is a boy or girl and then length it and weigh it.



For a couple of lucky fish I get to dig around their brains for their ear bones called otoliths. Fish otoliths are filled with information very similar to tree rings. They can tell someone with the right equipment if the fish grew a lot in one year and not so much in another because of food supply. This is a sablefish and their otoliths are tiny and very hard to find, I only managed to find 2 of the 5 I was suppose to get. I secretly think they say 5 hoping we would get 2or 3. As I kept missing the right part of the brain and had to dig around with my forceps in the brain I thought it is probably a very good thing I have no desire to be a brain surgeon someday.

Days at Sea 66: too much time on my hands

I have to wear hearing protection and a hairnet in the factory and they are HUGE so I decided to create an experiment. Hypothesis: I can fit my whole head into the hairnet, not just my hair. Conclusion : well you can see for yourself




My mother has requested more pictures of me smiling so here you go...

Days at Sea: 65 The Week of Jellyfish

One boats totes of Jellyfish that are lined up to be loaded back on the boat to be discarded at sea.


It seems like every week we have a new theme in the form of bycatch. Pollock is the cleanest fishery in the world meaning that when you mean to catch Pollock that is normally all you catch. Last week everybody caught a bunch of salmon with their Pollock which is a major no no. It also means a lot of work for me because I have to count all the salmon and take scale samples and genetic samples for the labs back in Seattle. This week all the boats were coming in with jellyfish instead of salmon. It means the boats take a little longer to unload since there is a bunch of sorting that has to happen but at least I don't have to count all the jellyfish. That would be a nightmare.

Day 58: More Pictures

This is the pump that they put into the refrigerated saltwater tanks on the boat then the fish get pumped up though to pipe into the factory where I sit and watch them go by.



This is what I look like walking around the plant. In the process of taking this picture I realized that I had been walking around for 10 hours with my shirt misbuttoned, hence the uneven tails. Looking like this I get hit on about 3 times a day. And most girls think they have to very painful things for men to notice them (i.e. waxing, plucking) nope men really don't care is what I have learned out here, it is other women that judge you. [that last bit I learned at college :)]



More pictures of a beautiful sunrise on the harbor.

Day 58: Random Pictures

This is a really huge scary machine that carries the cargo containers around the plant. When ever I have to walk to 'town' I am always looking over my shoulder, it moves much faster than you think it would. I always feel like that movie from when I was little "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" all I remember was a huge ant that always scared me and that is what I think of every time I find it chasing me down the road. Behind the machine you can see a bit of sunrise, the sunrise this morning was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I had 20 minutes off and I could either eat breakfast or run up the road to watch sunrise and take a bunch of pictures. Lets just say that there are no pictures of breakfast.



The machine that unloads the cargo ships in Dutch Harbor..



There are Bald Eagles all over Dutch Harbor there are a bunch of nests up on the cliffs. I always thought that Bald Eagles would have a very majestic cry but they make this high pitched chirping noise. It is a good thing that the US government did not know about Hallmark talking cards when they decided to go with the Bald Eagle for our nations symbol.

Day 57:Life on Akutan Island

The entirety of the inhabited part of the island.


I am living at the processing plant on Akutan Island. The only thing on this island is the Trident Seafoods plant, and a native alaskan village of about 90 people. Native Alaskans are from an Asian and Native American background, and they don’t mind being called Eskimos unlike what most of us have heard in the lower 48.
There are several hundred people who work at the plant. I get my own
room that connects through a bathroom to the other observers room. I
have been assigned to work with a really cool lady in her mid forties.
Her name is Julie so people leave notes addressed to us as J&J.
Which I found pretty funny since I have been getting notes addressed
to me like that for my whole life :).

Instead of counting and sexing a third of each haul on the boat I was
assigned to, now I just have to watch offloads from several different
boats and then count their salmon at the end. The absolute best part
is that I don't have to put my rain gear on 4 times a day, which was
the part of the job I hate the most. If there aren't a whole lot of
boats that come in, I have a super easy shift but if there is a line
of boats I am running back and forth between buildings for 12 hours.
I only have to watch the conveyor belts for 2 hours at a time and then
the scientist who is assigned to the boat covers for me for 2 hours.
So in a big day I could end up just watching a belt full of Pollock go
past be for 6 hours. Luckily I have access to the internet and can get new podcasts.

Day 51: More on The Goose.

I got to fly in a Grumman Goose from Dutch Harbor to Akutan. It was about a 20 minute flight since it is like 2 Aleutian Islands east of Dutch Harbor/Unalaska. The Grumman Goose was designed in the 1930’s for wealthy Long Islander's commute to New York City. They used them a lot in World War II and there are only a couple left flying and I think that the Dutch Harbor goose is one of the only ones left in the United States. Akutan is getting an airport strip soon so this goose won't be flying for much longer. I was a real treat to ride shotgun in a plane like this very few observers get a flight on the goose since most of them are picked up by their boat in Dutch Harbor or another boat will take them back and forth. When I got to Alaska I made a wish list of things I was going to find a way to do, I got ride in a sea plane checked off in May and ride in the goose checked off in July. All that is left in the Aeronautics section is ride in a helicopter.

Day 50:Good thing I am flexible

As we came into port I we knew that Mary (the other scientist on the boat) was going home and I was going to get a different partner. I was assigned this 65 year old guy who didn’t notice that the 70’s were over. Right as we got into headquarters I called the scheduler and she said ‘oh I am glad you called, actually……’( I have been told that ‘actually’ with a pause always means that you are getting moved) She told me to pack up and get to the airport the goose was flying at 3 or 4. I had no idea what this meant so I walked to the airport and stood there looking helpless until a really nice lady helped me out. She said the goose was supposed to fly at 4 but because of fog they were going to go at 3, it was 1. So I jumped in a cab back to my boat packed all my clothes and sampling gear. It was probably the worst packing job I have ever done. Got it all off the boat into the boats car they drove me to the airport and I got there with 5 minutes to spare, when they told me that the fog bank was holding and they were delaying for an hour and a half. This whole job is hurry up and wait, so I waited. All the prior observers have told me that I NEED to get the copilots seat if I ever get to take the goose, I should be pushy and demanding, it is worth the view. They lady who runs the ticketing for the goose was great though, she took one look at me and told the captain that she was calling shotgun for me and then told all the men on the plane that I got to ride shotgun don’t bother asking. I still had very little clue what is going on till I heard “well girl get on the plane, you have to go first”. In total today I have been called ‘darling’ ‘girl’ ‘babydoll’ ‘baby’ apparently the message got lost somewhere between Mount Holyoke and Alaska that women have names.

Day 48: Salmon Everywhere

We are done with this trip. In the very last haul we accidentally ran into a huge school of salmon with our net. Unlike everything else salmon are federally managed by number instead of weight. This means an unbiased person has to hand count each salmon that their boat pulls up, also known as, me. There were just under 1,000 salmon that I had to ID to species (there are 5 species of pacific salmon) and count. Then take genetic samples from 35 of them. By the end I decided that salmon were not worth the effort required to manage their populations, I don’t think the higher ups at the National Marine Fisheries Service will agree with me but they have never counted salmon for 4 hours.

Day 47: Words of Wisdom

Hung: I have been fishing for 16 years, I am on this boat 300 days a year and I have been married 10 years! One wife, second wife is too expensive.

Most of the guys on the boat are on marriage number 2 or 3. Someone told me that there was a slew of divorces on the boat last year and now they are all trying to find else to marry them. When I asked the girl in the galley who is about my age why they wanted to be married when they were only home 60 days a year. We both thought there were much better things to spend their money on then a wife, divorce, child support, wife, divorce cycle.

Days at Sea 46

One of my new favorite "This American Life" podcasts is a bunch of stories from people about childhood ideas that you learned much later to not be true. So I will tell you all a story from my childhood... my grandfather had surgery on his leg when I was about 5 or 6. When I asked why all I remember was being told it has something to do with rebar (the metal bars that reinforce concreate). Taking this bit of information into my 6 year old mind led me to give our rubarb plants a wide bearth for the next 5 years until my brother set me straight.

DAYS AT SEA 45!!!!

Happy half a contract to me, happy half a contract to me... yes today marks the half way point of my deployment. Not much to say, today was pretty slow. As I watched on of the nets come onboard a fish was caught by the cheek and managed to get free. Then he got free and was splashing around in a puddle on the deck. I really wanted to take my foot and scootch him to the scupper (the whole at the level of the deck to let water run off)and back out to sea but he was a little too far out of reach for a rescue to be possible. I named him Benny in case you were thinking, that fish needs a name.

Days at Sea: 44 Fun Facts

Everything about this boat is Super Sized.
The boat is 300 feet long.
The mouth of the net is the size of a football field.
The net is as long as a football field.
The 2 wenches that pull the net on board are 5 feet across.
There are 2 cranes on board.
There are 2 huge main engines on board
The boat has 5 levels
We process 400 metric tons of fish everyday. Think about a two car garage full of fish, now multiply it by 8.
It takes 2 weeks of 24/7 fishing to fill the freezers.
They serve a meal every 4 hours around the clock
122 crew members (114 men, 8 women) + 2 scientists live on board
They crew work 16 on, 8 off shifts for 10 months a year
On board scientists (ME!) work 12 on, 12 off 3 months at a time, until you decide you have enough money for the year.

Days at Sea: 39 Different Cultures One Boat

Whenever I leave the factory I always try to make sure it is not when the whole factory breaks at midnight for 15 minutes and at 8am. Today I waited in the factory for 15 minutes while they had their break. I feel bad because it is the only time they get to sit down and as soon as I show up they all scatter from in front of my locker and normally 3 or 4 of the processors dont get to sit down then.

When I headed out of the factory the whole line of 50 men and 1 women were heading back into the factory so I stepped aside out of the main aisle. It was interesting how all the men treated me as they walked past. They are from all over the world, some from Africa who are Muslims (they pray outside my door when the sun goes down), some are from Central America and others are from Vietnam. I tried to smile at the ones who smiled at me but as soon as I made eye contact they immediatly looked away. Some gave me a small shy smile, some a small head bow, some looked really unsure so when I smiled at them they gave me a really quick one in return. Some inquired about the size of the fish coming in, they know that I get the first look. I have learned to always say BIG even if I dont know.

I have a solution to the Debt Ceiling problem, smaller shopping carts

We had mechanical problems and had to go back to Dutch Harbor before the boat was full. When the boat broke we were right up against the international date line and the Arctic Circle so it took us 2 days to get back to port. We were in port for 3 days getting everything fixed and then taking the boat out for 'sea trials' before going back to port to offload all the engineers and mechanics that had been flown up from Seattle just to fix the boat. We are back on the fish and so after a paid week off I have to get back to work. Dutch Harbor has one small World War Two 'museum' a small library and a hill to climb. I had already done 2 of the 3 so I explored the 3 aisles of the Dutch Harbor/Unalaska Public Library.

This picture is taken in Safeway. To limit myself to spending $25 I shop in my hardhat when it is full I leave. Yeah a hard hat full of groceries costs $25.

Around Dutch Harbor