Time on the Vaerdal - back to WA

This final deployment was short and sweet - I completed just over a month on a flatfish factory boat called the Vaerdal. I was paired with another observer on this boat and we worked a 12 on 12 off schedule. For the first week and a half we had a pod of 10-15 killer whales swimming next to us feeding on discarded fish. It was amazing to see so many whales so close to the boat. Toward the end of the deployment I experienced my first significant Bering sea storm and thankfully didn't get at all seasick. The boat finished up fishing earlier than expected and instead of sending me off on another boat my contractor decided to send me back to Seattle for a final debriefing.

Back to Sea

I'm back to the Bering Sea in couple hours. I arrived back in Dutch Harbor on Sunday after a couple week stint in Washington. I had a great time in Seattle hanging with other observers, spending time with my aunt and uncle, and meeting up with old friends living there. Early last week I was able to able to make a quick visit home to Pasco to spend time with Mom and Dad. All in all, I feel quite refreshed and blessed to have had connection with friends and family mixed with a lot of land activity including a M's game, browsing Pike Street Market, visiting Mars Hill, and seeing a Huskies game. As for my next boat, it is a flatfish factory trawler much like my first boat I was with in the spring. Its around 125 ft in length and is also known as part of the head and gut fleet referring to the degree of processing. I'll be paired with another observer and will have a 12 hour shift sampling in the factory. It looks as though it may be a while until I'm back to land as they likely will take longer trips and offload offshore to a tramper vessel.

Debriefing in Seattle

Upon disembarking from my last boat the Fierce Allegiance on the 15th I remained in Dutch Harbor awaiting another assignment. Longing for physical activity after being on the boat for a couple months, I was able to fit a lot into the week I was there. The first weekend in town, there was an annual half marathon run that looped around the island. There was also an observer ultimate frisbee game, a day of fishing and berry picking around a place called Humpy's Cove, and a substantial hike up Pyramid trail (which would've provided an amazing view of the island if it hadn't been foggy). Eventually my company decided not to put me on another boat and instead to fly me to Seattle for debriefing. Arriving in the University District of Seattle from Dutch Harbor was a drastic change of environment and I had a little culture shock the first few days. Reviewing and correcting data took a couple days at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) campus, and now I'm free until re-briefing next Thursday.

Smooth water, Marine Mammals, Betty Crocker?

Welp...Hello August. The last month flew by. I've just completed trip 7 with my current boat and am looking at a couple more trips before switching boats or possibly heading in for debriefing. All in all this deployment is going smoothly - fishing has picked up and the need for repairs in town have been minimal so we've been rolling right along. The weather has been phenomenal, and for a couple of weeks the sea was so calm it felt like we were out on a lake of glass. The first day or two it really weirded me out, I think because I've always equated the ocean with waves. While the samples I take are 99.9% pollock the highlights of the job over the last month have been sharks and marine mammal sightings. Twice, while collecting fish pouring from the net a substantially sized shark has flopped out next to me. It undesirable to have a large shark fall into a holding tank and be a chore to later remove so the crew moves quickly to rope it by the tail so it can be craned out of the way. During the days steaming out to fishing grounds I've gotten watch pods of porpoises swim alongside the boat. This last trip a sea lion stayed with us (just yards from the side of the boat) for a good 2 or 3 hours begging loudly for some fish. She definitely knew that a fishing boat's discards would make for an easy meal.
With considerable time to fill to and from the fishing grounds I've taken up crosswording, am developing a workout plan for the fishing vessel constrained observer, am making a movie, and have been baking a lot from the boat's cookbook.

Pollock B season

I boarded my current boat on June 23^rd and have just completed my third trip. This boat is a Pollock catcher boat at around 170 feet and had a crew of 5. We’re in the middle of B season for Pollock which is the most fished species in Alaska, and is widely purchase in the U.S. and abroad for use in everything from fast food fish sandwiches to the base for imitation crab. I’m feeling pretty spoiled with my own stateroom (with porthole), two day steams to fishing grounds, and only 4-5 hauls to sample a trip. On this vessel type fish are dumped directly from the net through holes on deck into RSW (refrigerated sea water) tanks. When filled up, we return to Dutch Harbor and offload to the massive Unisea processing plant (which owns half the island). At the plant, the fish are pumped out of the tanks onto a large conveyor belt where fish are sorted, quality tested, and weighed before entering the rest of the factory. During the offload, it’s my job to collect any salmon, halibut, or crab from the millions of Pollock rolling by. This is the most time intensive part of my observer duties on this vessel type with offloads taking between 6 and 8 hours. I might be a bit more exciting if the catch was more diverse but so far in two offloads I’ve had a combined total off around 10 fish to pull from the belt – leaving lots of time for pacing and iPod listening. After staring at the belt of flowing fish for a few hours it’s really eerie when they stop the belt for some reason and the fish appear to travel backwards. Generally, I’ll still get some time off in town as the boat works on net or other maintenance repairs. During downtime after the first trip I was finally able to hike up Bunker Hill which neighbors Unisea and is a great vantage point to see the island on a clear day. Ending the second trip we pulled into town just in time to see some of the 4^th of July parade through the binoculars and our offload ended just in time to watch the fireworks- which were quite impressive for such a small town.

"Summery" Dutch Harbor

I was excited to be heading out to Dutch Harbor because it meant that I could bring my bike with me. Having a bike in Dutch is great because it cuts the hour walk from the bunkhouse to the Unalaska side of the island at least in half. The Unalaska side of the island is where the majority of town is including the medical clinic, library, church, school and recreation center. One of the first evenings in Dutch I headed over to town, swam at the school’s Olympic sized pool, and then played a couple hours of pick up basketball in the rec. center’s gym. I met more observers who were in town and went to a bonfire with beer and smores on the beach near our bunkhouse. The next afternoon I was invited out to another observer company’s house for a frisbee game. Oh, it felt amazing to play some ultimate – it’s been too long. The field we played on was the outfield of a new softball field located in a valley beyond town tucked between still snowy mountains. With a sunny and warm afternoon it was a strange sensation to be playing in shorts and t-shirt, barefoot on lush green grass surrounded by nearby mountains’ snow fields.

Getting familiar with Anchorage Airport

Back in Anchorage I awaited my next assignment and received word that I was to fly out to St. Paul island on a Tuesday and meet up with a factory trawler that was offloading there. I met up with ~ 7 of the boats crew in the airport and we waited while to flight was delayed and then cancelled due to poor weather. After letting my contractor know about the cancellation I taxied back to the bunkhouse with all my gear. Within a minute of walking in the door I got a call from my contractor saying there was a chance that we would be sent to St. Paul on a charter that afternoon and that I needed to go back to the airport. I reconnected with the crew and camped out in the terminal the rest of the day until we found out that the charter wasn’t going to happen. Since I had been told to stay with the crew, I went with them to a nearby hotel where there company was putting them up for the night. We checked in on standby the next morning ~ 5am and were told that the next possible flight out would be at noon. With the feeling of déjà vu we sat in the same seats as the day before and listened as the flight was delayed and then cancelled. At this point, the boat wasn’t going to wait any longer, the crew members were going to be sent back to Seattle, and I was on my way back to the apartment to await new itinerary. The following day I returned to the Anchorage airport which was beginning to feel like a second home and was flown back out to Dutch Harbor.

Cordova and Kodiak - Boat 2

Friday the 13^th I was flown to Cordova to meet up with my next boat. As I boarded the plane, with ~10 other passengers, I realized that it would easily be the smallest plane on which I’ve traveled. Full capacity would’ve been maybe 20 people with single rows of seats on either side of the narrow aisle. There were no overhead compartments or separation from the cockpit. After welcoming us on board and closing the entry door the co-pilot took his seat and we departed. As the last flight of the day, we arrived at Cordova’s tiny airport as they were preparing to close. After the other passengers were whisked away by family or friends, it was just me and the one gate attendant who thankfully waited to see that I was picked up by the one cab driver coming from town 15 miles away. By late evening I made it to my boat, a ~60 ft longliner called the Allstar, met the 5 person crew and we departed. My time aboard the Allstar was short but very enjoyable. The sea conditions in the Gulf of Alaska were much calmer than what I’d experienced in the Bering Sea and a couple of mornings the water was like glass. On this type of vessel they pull up strings of hooks, head and gut the fish on deck, and pack the catch in ice below deck. Though much more challenging it was great to do all of my sampling on deck versus in the depths of a factory. The boat was targeting black cod and also had a quota for halibut, which is unique because for most vessels to which observers are assigned its retention is prohibited. One of the hauls was especially rich in halibut and as the fish were brought aboard they overflowed out of their holding bin and I soon found myself standing thigh deep in 60-70lb halibut. It was quite a sight to see that volume of halibut at one time – on the trawler I would only see the occasional halibut usually well under 10lbs. Living conditions onboard were cozy. There was a small galley where we could squeeze 5 of us for meals prepared by one of the deckhands who doubled as the cook. A couple steps from the galley were the captain’s stateroom and a motor home sized head (bathroom). Just beyond these was the wheelhouse which had only enough room for the captain. Down a ladder into to bow of the ship were the crew’s sleeping quarters consisting of stacked racks (bunks) following the curvature of the walls to their meeting point at the very front of the boat. On the fourth day, we arrived in Kodiak to offload their catch and let me off of the boat. I was fortunate to be able to visit Kodiak as very few observers employed by my company ever end up there. I spent the night in a hotel and then flew back to Anchorage the following morning.

Fairbanks Trip

I decided on a whim one afternoon to take a road trip up to Fairbanks. After picking up a rental car and purchasing some snacks I hit the road around 9 pm (though with the amount of daylight it seemed more like 3 or 4 in the afternoon). Driving through the night I pretty much had the road to myself and the darkest it got was dusk between 1-2am. It was an absolutely beautiful drive passing by vast untouched Alaskan wilderness, Denali national park and the massive silhouette of Mt. McKinley. I arrived in Fairbanks around 3am after coasting for the last 10-15 miles concerned that I was almost out of gas. I attempted to sleep in the back of my rental car for a few hours without much success, had breakfast at the local Safeway and explored town a bit. Fairbanks was larger than I anticipated and now the 2^nd largest city (surpassing Juneau) in Alaska. Just ~ 10 miles away I visited North Pole, AK themed as though Clauses actually reside there. At the Santa Claus House guests year-round can get a picture on Santa’s lap and have letters from Santa sent bearing an authentic North Pole postmark. Along with other memorabilia, the house has an entire wall covered with children’s letters to Santa from around the world.

1st Debriefing - Anchorage

Instead of going out on another boat my contractor ended up sending me back to Anchorage for debriefing. Generally conducted in Seattle, debriefing which includes a computer survey and interview, can take up to three weeks depending on the volume of observers. The Anchorage office is smaller and more laid back and I was completed with debriefing in less than 2 days. A few days after debriefing, I had a day of re-briefing (observer program updates) and then had a week off waiting for my next assignment. While I was in town I was able to meet and hang with a bunch of other observers who were in town for training or were just passing through. Anchorage had really come alive since April and tourist season was in full swing. I did a fair amount of exploring around town and was able to be much more mobile after finding a bike for $20 at a second hand store. I also ended up renting a car and taking couple day trip north to check out Fairbanks.

Between Boats

I’ve completed my time with my first boat and am in Dutch Harbor awaiting my next assignment. The boat I was on is done fishing for awhile and is docking up for around a month. The last few trips we experienced quite the mix of weather and fishing conditions. Early on, we had beautifully clear, calm, and warm (almost 40º) days with hauls of fish consistently around 55 metric tons. Then in the middle of each trip we’d have a stretch of rough weather with chilly temps, horizontal snow, large swells, and small hauls between 2-5mts after a number of hours towing the net. These days were tough. Wanting to wrap the final few trips the captain and crew were discouraged, it was rough enough that people were getting sea sick, and unsecured items were being thrown about the halls and rooms.

It was a kick working with my new lead observer John. After his first career he “retired” to observing which he has been doing for 15 years. From his wealth of experience and love for sharing stories I learned a lot about being at sea, gleaned tips on being an observer, and had many a good laugh.

I thought I might be heading down to Seattle for debriefing after this last trip, but for now I’m awaiting deployment to another vessel which may be tomorrow or a few days from now.

Factory and Crew

My observer station is at the far end of the factory, adjacent to the sorting belt which is the first part of processing. At randomly predetermined intervals I give the signal and the guys on sorting line help me collect baskets of fish for sampling. There are around 30 factory workers (all guys except one Samoan gal Maria) who work rotations of 16 hours shifts. They are a hardworking bunch. I got to know the guys on the sorting line the best and they were real friendly and helpful. It was interesting what a diverse crew we have we crew from Somoa, Mexico, Ghana, Japan, Philippines, Washington, Rhode Island, and North Carolina.

Haul Back

When the captain (day) or first mate (night) is ready to bring up the net the haul back begins with the whir of the net reels. In around 20 minutes the doors are pulled up with a loud rattling thud. After the doors are secured, the net reel continues until the first part of the net comes aboard. At that point a high tech monitoring device, which allows the captain to view what is entering the net, is removed and set aside. Soon thereafter the remaining length of the net and codend (part containing the fish) is pulled aboard alternating between two large cables called gilson lines. After a while you get used to the boat sounds and can tell what’s happening on deck from anywhere on the boat. Once the codend is completely up the captain or mate comes down from the wheelhouse to check out the catch, live tanks are uncoverd, a zipper-like rope is pulled from the end of the bag and the fish are dumped into the live tanks to await processing. Larger codends are sequentially dumped somewhat like squeezing a tube of toothpaste.

Back in Harbor

I'm briefly back in Dutch Harbor while the boat offloads all their fish and refuels. This was a longer time at sea because after filling up once we offloaded to a tramper (foreign purchasing vessel) at a small island much closer to fishing grounds called St. Paul. The lead observer that I've been working with, Sam has completed her contract so I'll be working with another veteran observer who I just met today named John. It looks like I'll be with this boat for at least a couple more trips. My body does seem to be adapting to pitch and roll of the boat even when it's rough. I'm eating real food now, where as about half of my first trip my diet consisted of the saltines and water I could keep down. I sleep great on the boat and am actually having a tough time falling asleep back on land without the usual rocking of the waves and hum of the engine. I've gotten used to showering in a staggered athletic stance and have become much quicker at getting into all of my layers of rain gear which initially took a clumsy 10 minutes -probably much to the amusement of the crew. The flow of my duties is also much smoother. I'll generally take 5 or 6 samples a day depending on how big of hauls their pulling up. For a single sample I take around 5 big baskets of fish off a belt, and then sort and weigh them by species. For every new species I see I make a drawing and record identifying characteristics. Once in every three samples I record the sex and length of ~20 randomly selected fish. Out of those 20 every 5th haul (bag of fish they bring onboard) I get to collect otoliths. This is probably my favorite part so far. Otoliths are pairs of inner ear bones that are encased just behind the fish's brain. Back in a Seattle lab they are able to determine fish ages by counting the otoliths rings (like counting tree rings). In the flatfish that I'm working with, they can be very small (the size of a pebble or smaller) and it's challenging to make the right cut so that you don't have to go hunting for them. As observers we're also responsible to watch for accidental catch of marine mammals as they dump the codend (really big bag of fish [up to 60 metric tons]). No mammals yet - evidently it's fairly rare to snag one. They call the bringing up of the net a "haul back" and we're notified 15 minutes prior. Off time during a shift is variable from day to day. A couple of days over this last trip I worked around 9 or 10 hours straight while another day when fishing wasn't going well the captain decided to steam to a different fishing ground and I had around a 6 hour break. There's always paperwork to fill out and data to enter onto the computer but when that's completed there can be time to read, nap, eat, or listen to the iPod, etc.
... well that's probably good for one post - much more to share but I should probably break it up a bit. Thanks for the comments!

1st Trip

Just got back into Dutch Harbor after my first trip! It's great to be back on land and it's a beautiful day here, my body's missing the sway of the boat and I'm a bit "land sick". All in all my first trip went well. I was on a big factory trawler boat and we were out just over a week. Fortunately, I was paired with an experienced lead observer and she helped me out a lot. There were approximately 30 crew members including deck hands, factory workers, the engineer, and the cook. The first few days the weather was mild and I got the hang of taking samples of the catch. About day four the seas got rough and I experienced my first bout of seasickness. I was pretty miserable the next couple of days throwing up, eating only saltines, and trying to sleep as much as I could (I usually felt better horizontally). I gradually felt better and the rest of the trip was enjoyable: getting to know some of the crew and honing my sampling methods. Though most of the hauls were clean (low species diversity) the last few were dirty (high diversity) and I got to identify a bunch of different fish. We're here in port until tomorrow sometime as the boat offloads and has some crew changes. I looks like I'll be with this boat until early May.

Safety Week

One more day of training to go. We all passed our final written exam this morning and had our pictures takes for our observer IDs this afternoon. We had our fish identification final all of Tuesday morning and have spent the rest of the week focusing on safety and emergency situations. It's been a sobering and helpful few days preparing for the inherent dangers of the commercial fishing industry. Tuesday afternoon we went to the Univ. of Alaska pool and practiced donning survival suits within 60 secs, working as a team in the water, entering life rafts, and retrieving a man over-board. Yesterday, the Coast Guard visited and gave a lecture covering all of the vessel's safety requirements and equipment. It's impressive to learn about some of the equipment that has been developed to aid in survival and rescue missions. One of coolest is the personal locating beacon (PLB) issued to each observer. These are a small high power homing devices with GPS that are able to narrow search area to a circle of 1/2 mile diameter. Yesterday we also had an observer who was on the Alaska Ranger (the vessel that just sank a couple weeks ago) come and share his story of abandoning ship and being rescued.
While its been a ton of information the last few weeks, I feel like the pieces are starting to come together. Tomorrow we cover mid-cruise evaluations, debriefing, and then check out all of our sampling and safety gear. We did find out from our contractor that we won't be flying out to Dutch Harbor until at least Monday which thankfully allows us a weekend to rest and pack.

Midway thru Training

Well, I've made it to Alaska! After accepting a job with Alaskan Observers at the beginning of the month, saying goodbyes in Spokane, packing everything to Pasco, and driving over to Seattle, I arrived in Anchorage early last Monday morning and jumped right into our intensive 3 wk training course. The course is in conjunction with Univ of Alaska and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). There are 6 of us in training which runs from 8-5 alternating between 2 main instructors, Mike and Joe (both previous observers). We've already covered a ton of information regarding safety, commercial fisheries history, gear types, regulations, sampling theory and methods, live at sea, and of course fish indentifications. Today we actually had a fascinating guest lecturer from Univ of Alaska Fairbanks who talked all about the marine mammals we may encounter.
I'm living in company provided apartments with 4 other classmates and a couple of prior observer who happen to be in town in between deployments. After class we generally grab a bite to eat and spend the rest of the night on written and reading assignments for the next day.
It's been absolutely beautiful in Anchorage! The backdrop of mountains is amazing and though still cold its been sunny most days. Also it doesn't get completely dark until around 9pm.
Final lab and written exams are next week and upon successful completion we're slated to head out to Dutch Harbor next Saturday for deployment.