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Every year young people come to
Alaska looking to make their fortune commercial fishing. However, many of them
are woefully underprepared. Many can't handle the conditions at sea or the long
hours, or it's just too tough for them. Former fishing boat captain Jonathan
Allen has seen good greenhorns and bad during his years in the industry, and
decided to write a handbook to help the prospective crewman.
"The
Big Bucks Guide to Commercial Fishing in Alaska," was the result. It is the
subtitle that holds the real story, though: "How to run away to Alaska, Work
Harder than You Ever Thought Possible and Perhaps Even Get Paid."
Allen,
now retired from fishing and living in Idaho,
still ships out as a merchant seaman. He started writing the book while waiting
for a cod season to begin back in the mid-90s:
-- (Greenhorn 1 35 sec "So
there we were in the ... was about half way done with it.")
The
book attempts to do a service for skippers in the industry. Allen does his best
to discourage slackers from applying, because there are a lot of greenhorns who
fail:
-- (Greenhorn 2 27 sec "I
had one guy who decided to ... beginning of the 21st Century.")
He
encourages prospective deckhands to increase their odds by lining up a job
before coming to Alaska.
-- (Greenhorn 3 43 sec "The
capital of Alaskan fishing ... what anybody else sends them.")
Allen
points out that an inexperienced hand should not expect to make much - if any -
money on his first boat, but he says the experience is more valuable than the
pay at the beginning of a career:
-- (Greenhorn 4 32 sec "The
best opportunities are never ... somebody with no experience.")
He
says having a background in the military or growing up on a farm is ideal for a
fishing hand. He says those people generally are used to getting up very early
and working hard every day. Barring that, having some rope-tying skills could
be the difference between getting hired or not:
-- (Greenhorn 5 16 sec "Everybody's
got to be able to tie a bowline ... ahead of the game.")
"The
Big Bucks Guide to Commercial Fishing in Alaska," by Jonathan Allen will be published
later this winter.
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