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

Days at Sea 32: The actual question

I became aware of the phenomenon of trying to figure out what people were actually asking when I moved from the West coast to the East Coast for college. There are the words coming out of the persons mouth "where are you from" and what they want to know "are you weathly". I will admit that there might be a similar west coast duality but I don't notice it since I know exactly which question they are asking. Alaksa fishermen have their own set of questions that only later I have figured out what they are actully asking. Here are a couple of examples...

Question: How long have you been observing?
Real Question: We have a bet going on how long you have been observing, I said that your hair was so uncontrolled you must be a long time observer cause you dont care about it anymore.

A note on this: I worked REALLY hard to look like I wasn't new. I took my brand new shinny Xtra Tuffs and went hiking in them and walked through as much dirt as possible to make them not look shiney and new. I only packed 35 pounds for the whole summer so I didn't look like a new observer which are notorious for overpacking. In the end it was my 20 mall haircut.

Question 2: Are you on the boat for the whole season?
Real Question: What is the likelyhood that we might get assigned Chuck this season.

Note: Chuck is a long time observer that EVERYBODY knows. I know all about him and I have never met him. He sticks to the rules like glue, smells and does not leave warm feeling behind him.

Days at sea: 31 Types of Boats

MY BOAT!!!

I have been getting a lot of people who point out that they still don't get what it is that I am doing up here in the Bering Sea. I have been avoiding them as I tried to figure out what I was doing. So now I will begin with some basic facts, kind of like a college tour intro into what it is that I am doing.

There are 2 types of boats I can be put on Catcher boats and Catcher/Processor Boats.

Basically Catcher boats are about 120-200 feet long and have 5-7 man crew plus 1 scientist. bunch of fish stuff the boats tanks and then deliver it to an on shore processing plant. This is the best assignment for a scientist because when the are traveling between the plant and the fishing grounds you don't have any responsibilities.

Catcher/Proccessor (what I am on) take the factory to the fish. They spend 2 weeks at sea and then empty their freezers full of compleated product when they get to land. We have a crew of about 120 and the boats are just under 300 feet long.

Days at Sea: 31

Another question from the audience: What is my favorite "This American Life" podcast so far.

I really liked one that is pretty old but it was about this brother and sister who grew up secular Jewish and then when the brother was at Berkley he became a "born again christian". Then he moved to an island in Alaska called "the farm" to join a Christan commune sort of a thing. I thought it was funny that every time his sister mentioned his new life she always said "born-again christian" never "protestant", "christian" or other much shorter names. I thought it was like meeting a Muslim and always referring to them as a "non extremist Muslim" and how funny that would sound over and over in the course of a 10 minute story.

Other favorite line that I just say over and over in my head cause I still think it is funny is "while Jim was living the life of a B-list celebrity". It was on a podcast about the collapse of the housing market in 2008 and Jim was going on and on about how he was making tons of money selling mortgages that he knew were a bad idea but the money he made let him party at clubs with Tera Reid, Christina Aguilera and buy $1000 bottles of champagne. He thought he was the coolest guy in the room and then Ira Glass used the transition "while Jim was living the life of a B-list celebrity Mike was losing his home" delivered with just a subtle hint of mockery.