Every summer, my dad takes a trip north to the great state of Alaska. While some assume it's for sport fishing and fun, it's actually tough, scary, think 'Deadliest Catch' commercial fishing. Well, not really, it's not the super dangerous kind, but it's definitely hard work - or so I've been told. He's been doing it since before I was born, starting out fishing in the Puget Sound in high school and eventually moving up a level to Alaska. Now he has to continue fishing to support my mother's puppy habit.
When I was little, I thought he went up and caught millions of pounds of fish (one year he actually caught 1.2 million pounds!) with a pole because I didn't know any better. Now I know he actually works on a seiner which essentially means there is a big boat, huge net and skiff (or smaller boat) - the net is connected to the big and small boat and the skiff goes out and spreads the net throughout the water. Then eventually circles back to close the net and catch all of the fish! Then they are brought on the big boat and the crew "picks" the fish or sorts through all of them, getting stung by tons of jellyfish. My dad drives the skiff, so he doesn't have to worry about the jellyfish anymore. (Note: I'm not a seiner expert, but this is how I envision it.)
Tonight my dad is crashing on my couch so I can take him to the airport at the crack of dawn. My reward: He's bringing down fresh crab (caught this morning!) for dinner. Yum!
Dad with a halibut score, 300+ pounds!
This is where he bunks for 6 weeks, eek...
His boat
Great picture from the skiff
Completely unrelated: Dad and me in San Francisco. Not sure what we were going for...
Oh my gosh that is going to be so much fun!! I can't wait to see pictures!
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