Alaska's Fisheries Are Collapsing. This Congresswoman Is Taking on the Industry She Says Is to Blame

[SonofDonald]

26. I was a Trawl Fisherman in Alaska

From 1987-1992 after six years as a crab fisherman in the Bering

The “Council” from what I can tell (I didn’t read the article) is the “North Pacific Marine Fisheries Council”, I may be wrong on the name but they may have changed it a bit in the last 40 years.

The problem is that the council has actual fishery companies executives on it, it’s like giving the keys to the henhouse to the foxes themselves, this has been going on since at least the early 80’s, I was there at the start when they kicked out other countries fishing boats beyond the 200 mile limit from shore, it was called the “Americanization” of the fishery as you had to use a ship built in the USA to participate, at least something like the keel and a percentage of the hull.

I saw every bad thing they were doing out there up close and personal

This disgusted me to the point that I quit trawling in 1992

When I went from crabbing to the trawl fishery there were maybe four factory processing ships and 20+ crabbers that were converted into being able to trawl also, they would then make a trawl and deliver the cod end to one of the Processors

It was the same thing in the earlier days but the factory ships were foreign hulls and it was called a “JV” for “Joint Venture”, the last one of those I fished in was for the Yellowfin Sole season in 1988, the Bering Sea was then an actual city at night there were so many ships, I had crabbed for years but I never saw anything like that before that year.

They were in reality raping the Bering Sea and I mean RAPING IT

I could see the results of that practice in real time and by the third year I trawled we had to head up north beyond the Pribiloff Islands to even find Pollock, it’s what they make “Surimi” (fake crab, etc) from

At the start of my joining the trawl fishery we would make a 3-4 hour trawl and deliver around 100 metric tons each day to our processor, that’s like 220,500 pounds

Each and every day, caught by ONE 110 foot trawl boat, we would do this for 30-40 days at a time, then we had to go back to Dutch Harbor for fuel and food and any repairs we couldn’t do at sea.

Then we would head back out and do it again.

Within a few years there were dozens and dozens of trawlers involved and I watched the amount of fish caught go downhill and the distance traveled to find them increasing all the time.

I quit in 1992 as I was so disgusted watching what was happening, luckily I had a great shore job waiting for me so it was an easy choice for me, I just could no longer be involved in something I could find no justification doing.

Years later I saw “The Deadliest Catch” and I could be out on deck with the crews again without being tired beyond words or soaking wet, not bleeding somewhere everyday wasnt a bad thing either.

But then one day they tried to do a series on the trawl boats, I only saw one episode filmed on about a 220 foot trawler/processor, they had the net down for quite awhile from what I remember.

They pulled back and there was about five (5!) tons in the codend.

You would think it was the greatest day of their lives, for a 20th of the amount we did in a few hours every day of the week.

I know it’s a long ramble but I haven’t posted in a few years, I’m here reading everyday but the above post is actually something I know something about.

It’s absolutely true, the Foxes are in charge of the henhouse and have been for nearly forty years in my experience.

It’s the bycatch among other things killing the biomass of anything that swims or crawls on the bottom.

They’ll kill it all and wait till the very last moment to look for some way to bring it back.

I saw the future collapse of the fisheries in the Bering Sea around 30 years ago.

You know they did too, and they did nothing, in my opinion there is zero excuse.

NONE