Quote:
Originally posted by TBone
Anyone see this last night on the Discovery Channel? Great series about the Alaskan crabbers fishing for King and Opelia (sp?) crabs in the Bering Sea. It's considered the most dangerous profession in the U.S., with there being at least one death a week during the season. But the money is EXCELLENT...full hand mates can make up to $50,000 on a 5 day trip, although the average is about $15,000 for the same time...still nothing to balk at. Guys come from all over the country to mate these ships. There were a bunch of episodes on last night covering both crab seasons, and they had actual footage of a rescue of a guy going over board in almost freezing water, which is a 1 in 1,000 chance of happening. Anyway if you haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth the time watching.
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""Opelia (sp?)""
That would be opillio-- I fished Opi's for three years back in the early 90's. I could not belive when I heard the complaining coming out of those guys, they only had to fish for 10 days! We would stay out in that stuff for 10-30 days, until we had 155,000 pounds of crab or until we were running out of water or fuel. Then we would make a run to the Pribilof Islands to sell the crab to a processing ship and would be back out there in less than 24 hours. When I first started the season was two and a half months long!
I have many, many stories about crabing in Alaska. If anyone is interested let me know.
Slipknot, you fish in AK too?
And yes, that type of boat fishing DOES count--
Rich