What kind of onboard jobs might be available?
Most of the jobs you have probably read about are in our groundfish fisheries. Groundfish, like pollock and cod, are harvested in very large quantities (billions of pounds) in the Bering Sea. As the old saying goes, it’s not the end of the Earth, but you can see it from there. The Bering Sea is a very remote and hostile region. These fisheries involve catcher as well as catcher/processor vessels. The advertised work most probably is on a catcher/processor or factory trawler. These can employ up to 100 crewmembers per vessel who work on large, floating fish processing plants. These boats generally go to sea for 68 weeks at a time. Most jobs are on the slime line (butchering line) below deck. Hours are long (1018 hours / 6 to 7 days per week) and the work can be very dangerous. Most of these boats take on crewmembers in the Seattle, Washington area. This is a federally managed fishery, and not under the State of Alaska’s jurisdiction. Groundfish fisheries operate year round, but the bulk
