IAmA 21-y-o female. As a 20 year old I bought and captained my own commercial fishing vessel in Alaska with my 18 year old cousin. We ran it completely by ourselves for the entire summer. AMA

How much did you make this season?

negative $

Because this was the season you purchased your own boat, or because you spent more on this season's fuel and supplies than you earned from the fish?

She sold the boat so I assume she spent more.

It was mainly due to start up costs, such as outfitting the boat with gear, which you only have to do your first year. We also had to purchase all new floats, repair some hull work, get a new radio, get all new batteries, pay for the permit, etc. all of which are first-year costs that make it hard to profit your first year. We paid for the boat with cash but paid for the rest with basically all our profits and more. This would have been fine and would have balanced out because you are essentially investing this money into your business but since we decided to get out after only one year instead of staying to let it even out...

What was the strangest thing to happen to you out on the water?

Well in one satanic day we managed to get hung up, hit a tide rip/whirlpool and have a auto-pilot malfunction all at the same instant. One of the pics in the album I'm uploading shows the squiggles we did on the map (I have a tracking software). That was the worst!

Sounds hellish. I'm glad you were able to find your way in the end. :D

It was bad. The object of trolling is to run these four huge long metal lines back behind the boat, but you have to keep them separated because they each also have many smaller lines with hooks attached coming off of them so you have to run out these poles beside the boat and stuff so you can drag them along in the water without them them tangling. You can only make very gradual turns. So when the boat just started spinning in circles they all started wrapping around each other and the boat and these other things we drag in the water that are weights to keep the rocking down and then they got ensnarled with the hooks and of course there are heavy weights on the end of all the lines, and suddenly there were lines everywhere and they all had an amazing amount of pressure on them so they were very dangerous to touch because if they snapped they could do serious damage and if you didn't realize which way the pressure was coming from of what one snapping would release other lines to do you could get dragged over and whatnot. And they were damaging the wood of the boat on the sides and even on the bow. We really wanted to just hide inside and let them all break off but we were afraid of what they would take with them and rip off the boat so we had to start cutting them. Plus we were afraid to lose our custom stabilizer that was wrapped up. Needless to say there was lots of screaming at each other. We ended up losing all the gear in the end, which was probably $1500 or so, plus all the fish, plus multiple days spent in town repairing and buying new shit. Fuck that. That was probably the first or second most dangerous thing that happened I'd say.

I wondered about that -- and my next question was going to be if you ever felt like your life was in danger. Better to lose the gear than risk injury or death, though, even if it was expensive. Thanks for sharing your experiences. This has been an interesting thread.

haha the time I felt my life most in danger, or my fear level was highest at least, as actually when I was kayaking (we kept kayaks onboard so us and the dog could get to shore on random islands) and there were a shit ton of sea lions guarding the beach and they kept swimming around and baking those creepy breathing noises. Its safe to say I was terrified, which is sad because thats so not the most dangerous thing that happened.

What was the biggest swells you faced?

I don't really remember because its blurring with the other fishing boats I've been on. 14 feet perhaps?

This is fucking awesome.

1. What's going on here?
2. Oh yeah. I am in love.
3. How / why did you decide to do this?
4. Did you do it for kicks mostly, or was this serious business? How did it go?
5. Do you plan to continue to do this? Do you plan to grow?
6. How hard is the life?
7. For social life, do you frequent the same dives as the other fishermen? Do you bring boys back to the boat to fuck their brains out?
8. Have you had any mishaps? Close calls? Dangerous trips out?

1. That is just a taste of what your body always looks like when you live on a boat and are even slightly clumsy.
2. He is going to kill me for putting that on here.
3. Well we had been longlining on my dads boat and it was a really good season and we realized we were going to make about 25 grand a piece and started talking about what if all 5 of us piled the money together what we could do (I also have 3 brothers). Then my cousin and I started talking about a way to make money with the money because we both want to go to college and we talked about starting a business like a coffee stand but then somebody mentioned we could buy a trolling boat for about that much and we just couldn't get the idea out of our heads.
4. The kicks, though we hoped to make some money eventually. We both just love Alaska and loved exploring all the uninhabited islands on our own boat and going where we wanted to go and using all the navigation stuff. We both love the water and the forest which is about all you get around that area haha and we really just romanticized the shit out of it. I had just read Alaska Blues: A Story of Freedom, Risk, and Living your Dream and was super ready to have my own adventure. It went alright in terms of epic adventure time and ok in terms of fishing. All of our miniscule profits were poured back into the boat though.
5. No I've already sold the boat and I'm in college now though I may still go back to my dads boat next summer.
6. The trolling life isn't that hard. Compared to the other fishing that I have done, its easy. Its hard in terms of the hour commitment. You have to be on deck from sunrise until sunset or you don't make shit, but the work itself isn't that hard. And in Alaska in the summer, sunrise to sunset is a long fucking time.
7. Yeah its hard not to go to all the same places as the other fisherman, since there are only a few places to go to haha. I wasn't 21 so I couldn't go to the bar that all the fishermen went to but there is still a shit ton of socializing done on the docks and a buttload of gossip going on and stuff, its definitely a community. And of course EVERYBODY knew about us because we were "the kids" that bought the Byng. (Everybody knows all the boats too). I tried not to fuck anybody's brains out with my cousin in the room but it did happen once. I had a fellow-fisher bf that summer so it was just the one. We tried to do most of the fucking on his boat though.
8. A few yes. I described a huge derpfest somewhere above involving tangeled lines. One other dangerous situation we got in I never told anybody about because they would probably have locked us up haha. So everybody warned us about "Peril Straits" which is supposedly the most dangerous passage in Southeast, and at the end there is Sturgis Narrows (Surgis Narrows?). Now you are not to cross this unless absolutely neccessary, and only at slack fucking tide motherfuckers, I was told a million zillion times. At slack tide, the water is moving the least, as it is switching directions. Inbetween slack tides the water just rushes through this narrow point (fraught with boulders I might add). So we were heading back from a trip and I had food poisioning from eating some super sketch cheese. So I'm looking at this handy dandy tide app I have for my phone and I'm like OK slack is at 4:00 or whatever, so we pull over and chill out till that time. Turns out I am a stoner and was holding my phone upside-down . So we pull out of our little cove and immediately realize we are going about 8 knots faster than our boat should be capable of going. Which means, the tide is violently shoving us forward. We ended up going through the narrows at the moment when the tide was fastest, not slowest, AND there was a fallen tree swimming along with us. The tide was running so fast that the bouys that were supposed to mark the safe part of the passage were just lumps in the water because they were pulled completely over sideways and the water was rushing over them..."odd, I could have sworn there were bouys here last time...". Yeah. Navigated that shit like a super boss and got out alive, but that definitely should have been one of those moments where the idiot kids who think they can run a boat by themselves die tragically.

Re: 6 -- it's as hard as the ass of your captain! That 20 hour day can be brutal if you're going non stop and your quota is 'clean 3 fish a minute until your fingers bleed and there's a break, then get down there and pack ice, then back up and gut'.

Yeah but I was used to doing the same exact thing on the longliner except the fish were about 60 lbs and each "break" was filled with hauling the 40 pound tubs to the rack in the back. And on that boat we worked past sunset re-baiting the gear. So I could work the same pace only smaller fish pretty easy. But I know a lot of my friends on other trollers had it way tougher than me on mine. Plus we just weren't that good at catching Salmon yet so there were long breaks of me running the lines and scrubbing the deck repeatedly waiting for fish.

[deleted]

Okay I'll upload pics after I answer these initial questions.

1. Double check the shit out of shit. Triple check your double checks. Make a plan and stick to it. Never enter into a living situation with another human in a space smaller than your average bedroom that you CANT LEAVE.
2. Salmon.
3. No sorry, don't have the boat anymore and its a two person job anywhoo.
4. $54,000 for the boat, $6,000 for the permit, and about $3,000 for gear we needed. This was funded by fishing we had done on another boat that was ballin.
5. I work at a Hotel for Dogs now.

Never enter into a living situation with another human in a space smaller than your average bedroom that you CANT LEAVE.

What happened? That thing with the cousin didn't work out that well??

Well it worked out as in we are still epic friends but I don't think I talked to him for like a month after we came down to the mainland again. We are both pretty A-type and not settling exactly who was the captain and who could make the major decisions was a mistake. Also we didn't settle what would go down if mistakes were made, if both would take the penalty etc and a lot of cabin fever rage ensued. If you read my story about the demise of my laptop, the reason that tea spilled is because I was under a sleeping bag tent. I was still only 5 feet from him but damn I needed privacy so bad I just hid under a blanket haha.

Hotel for dogs? You mean a kennel?

No, I mean a prison. Yes a kennel. A boarding kennel is a "hotel for dogs", which happens to be part of mine's name, and is easier language for somebody unfamiliar to understand. Just "kennel" is vague because kennels are owned and run by breeders, showers, search and rescue groups etc. as well as dog boarders.

edit: I'm officially in a bad mood because everybody I live with is an immature/possibly sociopathic moron forgive snappishness

Did other boats or crews look down on you as a young female owner or were they supportive?

Was it profitable in the end or did you lose money?

We lost money haha but that was mainly due to start up costs. You are expected to lost money/break even for about five years before it pays off. o.0

That really depends on the people. Some we, some weren't.

What was the largest salmon you caught?

I have no recollection. Compared to the halibut I used to fish Salmon are tiny so I don't get impressed by their weights.

What did you do for entertainment?

Well I downloaded all three books of Avatar: The Last Airbender during a town stop. This culminated in me spilling boiling tea into the keyboard of my laptop when we hit some swells 3 episodes before the end. So painful.

ISNT IT SO GOOD?!?! I hope you caught up. Korra isnt bad also!

YES! That was my second time through... I'm not going to lie right now that dog in the pictures? Her name is Appa.

Having just read that you ended up with negative returns, Would you ever consider doing it again for the experience?

Yes, but I won't have the opportunity again in the near future. I won't be able to make that much longlining ever again in a summer, because the quota is being continually cut each year due to miscalculations and global warming and acid water and whatnot. I think my brothers that went this last summer without me only made about 9 grand where we once made 24. So I would not be able to buy another boat with that. I sold the Byng to pay off mooring and fuel costs and such for the summer and whatnot.

Did you encounter any orcas

Nope but we did see some Humpbacked Whales. Lots of porpoises too

Gorgeous dog I bet it enjoyed being at sea. So What did you typically eat?

She loved it! Only sometimes she would get excited by the floppers and scratch them, which was sad because then we got paid less.

You know, i have this weird memory of eating a shit ton of salmon...but I must be remembering incorrectly because that would be ILLEGAL.

For breakfast we always ate Coffee Eggs Bacon Hashbrowns (I'm more of a toast/tea person normally but that was some energy food) and then for lunch and dinner we ate a lot of fish, rice, pad thai boxes, ramen, bagles, and quesadillas, uhh cheesy toast...I have no idea. Normal stuff. We had a hard cooking situation with the oil stove so we couldn't really bake stuff and weren't really comfortable messing with meat too much

Eating salmon illegal?

You have to turn all you salmon in and let them be weighed and measured and shit then if you want you can buy them back from yourself in a weird kind of way, but they need the scientific data and you cant eat them at sea probably for some other reasons too that I forgot.

Yeah, I worked a troller just like yours one season on the canadian side of the border, right up to the edge of Alaska, and since we were fishing for Pinks we kept catching lots of (out of season) sockeye -- pink hoochies -- the ones we didn't hide made pretty good chowder. Plus all the bycatch, like rock fish when getting too close to the bottom. Don't get caught, right? It was tough just tossing that stuff overboard for the albatrosses.

Exactly!

Are you going to do it again next summer?

Nope! We ended up selling the boat because we were scared of turning a summer job into a career we couldn't get out of.

This I why I only get on a boat a couple days a year if I go fishing. My dad is almost 60 and has been fishing since he was 13. I've seen him go through years where he only made a couple thousand but I wish I fished a few years ago when their boat caught over a million pounds of sockeye.

Yeah thats how it goes! Some people like that. My father (around 60 also) fished as a young man, owned his own troller too, and went through law school. A few years into being a lawyer "fuck this, I'm going fishing" and went back to being a captain, this time as a longlining Captain. Due to quota cuts he is in pretty dire financial straits right now but all this winter I have not heard him mention practicing law once. He would rather be a poor fisherman than a rich lawyer. I know from him that loving your job is a key force in being happy with your life, so I need to do my own thing, even if I do go back to fishing in the summers, it is not what I want to do with my life, as much as I love it.

Where did you fish? I live in the Bristol Bay region and fishing is always good there. And I know a ton of young girls who fish all summer, kind of a family thing up here

I fished mainly out of Sitka and up by the Homeshore and Elfin Cove. I know a lot of girls fish summers, I have for years and so have a lot of friends, but not that captain. It started as a family thing for me too.

No way! I go to boarding school in Sitka! You know anyone from the town?

I don't think I know any permanent residents, besides the man who sold me the Byng, who is now dead. Most people I interacted with there were just summer fishermen folks. But I grew up in Petersburg if you know where that is. =] What school do you go to? Is that that big thingy over by the airport? I always wondered what that was.

Hi! I'm surprised at the apparent lack of interest in this thread. I applaud you for being so outgoing at such a young age. I fucked around for most/all of my twenties and only just recently got my act together(debatable!). Even then, I just went to college. Despite your losses I'm sure with your gumption you'll do just fine down the road!

Haha thank you so much! I honestly don't mind the losses, since I have such a great experience to look back on! My cousin gets super depressed about it sometimes but I think its amazing a retarded that we were ever allowed the opportunity to make 25 grand in a summer anyway, so losing it wasn't that big of a deal, its almost like that money never even existed. I pay for community college with my current job just fine and I will pretty much just love doing whatever whenever and I don't mind being dirt poor like I am now. I still have adventures, just in different forests, and a bike instead of a kayak and I still have my dog and a job in the fresh air!

Also, this might be my favorite picture ever.

I love that picture! Totally not relevant but I had to put it there because I can't see it without giggling. It was even funnier in real life. Then she did this

What are the restrictions on catching the salmon, as far as gear? Vessel? Season? Industry and individual quotas?

For our type of boat, with the gear that we were using, we were Trolling. For Trollers there are a certain number of permits in circulation, and anybody with a permit can catch as many fish as they are capable of. So if you want to go trolling you have to find another fisherman that has a permit he is not using, or go through an agency that handles transfers (my aunt runs this kind of brokerage). There are other ways to catch salmon though, such as Seining and Gilnetting. I don't know how they regulate those fisheries. For longlining, which is how you catch halibut and blackcod, you have quotas, that is a certain number of pounds of fish that you can catch each year, and you buy the pounds from each other that way trollers buy permits. I don't know what limitations they have on vessels, because most are in circulation. The one I had for instance, I bought of some old Norwegian dude, the same dude I got my permit from, so I knew it was legal size. People don't just go out and build a new boat when they want to enter the fishery, they buy one from somebody that wants to leave the fishery. My dad longlines on a boat built in the 20's that the modern fishing technology has been slowly added on to as it has been passed along throughout the years. The seasons are a bit tricky, it depends on the type of salmon. Kings, for instance, only open up at certain times of the year, and on opening day, everybody catches a TON and a lot of people (or some) make a lot of money. Once enough pounds have been caught, they close the fishery for a while. I think dogs and cohos and whatnot are open most of the summer. We have this number that we can call that says what is opening and closing each day. Everything is monitored by fishy scientists so they can decide how the fish population is doing and how much they should allow people to fish the next year to keep things stable and healthy.

What was the longest you stayed out in the water at one time?

Also, I love your dog.

Well we can only keep our fish for a few days in the ice hold before we need to sell them and get them properly frozen. But sometimes we would do this to a tender, which is like a huge boat that you can unload to that works for the cannery. Once we sold to a tender twice in a row, then fucked around some on some islands and then headed up towards Juneau so we were out of town probably for about 2 weeks but we went to shore multiple times and anchored up every night. This fishery is on the inside waters, which means we just go in the passages of water in between the islands in the panhandle. In another fishery we would do ocean fishing and be out for 11 days without land.

I love my dog too. Way too much.

As someone who has never been on a boat for more than an hour or so at a time: wow.

Also, do you have any Deadliest Catch-esque stories to tell?

I've never watched Deadliest Catch so idk...if you mean dangerous stories see my replies to aagree and GabrielGadfly

What was the funniest thing you saw while out at sea?

Nothing we saw was actually that funny...mainly trees. It was mainly our own antics in our boredom that were funny. Although once we were having a bit of a derpfest on the Homeshore and kept repeatedly running our lines out, then taking them back in, the turning around for Juneau, then heading for Sitka, then turning around and putting our lines back in...we could not decide what to do and were having a bit of a crisis. We passed this same poor boat like 6 times. I got out my binoculars and looked at him to see if he had noticed our derpery and he had his binoculars out and was looking at me. And I knew he was thinking something along the lines of "I knew it! It's those damn kids again..." and then I got slightly hysterical with laughter. That was not a good day.

I have looked through most of this thread. I am just curious what size of a boat you used for that.. What was the size of the hold and was the average amount of Salmon that you could fit in one full load?

PS. I really did look for the above information before asking but didn't see it. I did see about unloading to bigger boats while still @ Sea (If I understood that correctly, but didn't really get a feel for the size of the boat from the photos)

My vessel was 54' long. The boats I would unload to would be more along the lines of 200'. My hold was formed of a central chamber that was about 4-4-5 or so, maybe a bit more, with 3 side compartments that went back another 3 feet or so. I'm trying to remember how many pounds we ended up with the only time we actually filled the hold but I honestly can't, I do not remember numbers well, but I'm going to look around for my fish tickets. I know one check we got was for about $3,000, which would have made it about 500 pounds of fish sold, I don't remember how full we were but I think that might have been the fullest we ever got in the 3 day time period.

Thanks, that gives me an image in my mind... Something to piece together and possible look up :)

Raises one other question. the one time you actually filled the boat.. Did it just feel like a fishing extravaganza? Were you just reeling them in as quickly as you could reset the line? or was it more along the lines of an all day or multiple day grind to fill the boat? or a combination of both.

Thank you for your time & answers! Edited: I just reread your response... "A 3 day time period" i think you already answered my follow up question.. Sorry :-/

No problem! Its definitely a combination during the three days. There is usually a "morning bite" and an "evening bite". The morning bite gets you revved up then nothing happens for a while, then you get some random luck, then you go too shallow and break off a lead and have to repair a line which keeps you busy for a while haha. So the day does kind of grind away. The very first day we went out was on one of the King openers and we were reeling those fuckers in at a popular spot on the cape but we could not stop breaking off leads! To catch the fish you have to drag your leads just a few feet off the bottom, but if you hit it, they will break off. The chart program we used had depth measurements on it but they are spaced apart a certain number of feet or whatever (thats what the numbers on the weird chart pics are) but a lot of fluctuation occurred in-between. The long timers had this all figured out and would weave around the obstacles but we had to just keep our eyes glued to the depthsounder and try to dodge as best we could, but you cant turn too sharp...anyway these things are like $150 a piece so it was super frusterating because we were reeling in the money on one hand and breaking it off on the other. Dumb! It was definitely an art and I was definitely a noob.

Actually, as I picture it, I am probably glamorizing it a bit, but you make it sounds pretty exciting and frustrating at the same time. So I too am HORRIBLE with numbers (maybe someone else can verify this for me) but I was trying to do some quick math on your average in the initial response..

500lbs of fish = ~3000 dollars.. 500x6 = 3000 so each 1lb of fish must have yielded you 6 dollars. There is one variable you weren't too certain on was the weight of fish (Obviously fishing Halibut made you a fish size queen ;-P j/k... sorry) But essentially, it would take you quite a few fish just to make up the cost of o ne of these leads... Sound about right? That would be a huge set back and I imagine one of the key reasons you didn't come out on top financially?

I am pretty fascinated with your story I must say... But I think it is fantastic that no matter what happened you got some amazing experience, must have learn a ton, and gained memories that no one can ever take from you or might be difficult to compete with in every day living.. Kudos to you! :)

(also, ty for being the most interesting person on reddit this evening and saving me from the mundane boredom of my job)

Yeah. I think the fish were around 25 pounds? That may be on the large end though. I know there were three sizes of fish that you got three different prices for, maybe like below 16, 16-26 and above 26 or some such thing? Most of the cohos we caught we probably about 13 pounds? I can picture the size but I'm horrible at estimating weights. I know they were smaller than the Kings (my cousin is holding one in the album) I'll ask my Dad tomorrow, I have to call him anyway He did some trolling this summer, I did it the summer before so it should be fresher in his mind. Now these numbers are bothering me!! All I know is that I caught fish, and cleaned them, and put them in ice, then gave them to the cannery and they gave me money. They also gave me a fish ticket with all the statistics of the size and price and whatnot on it but I honestly did not spend that much time giving a fuck about those numbers haha. But the definite important part is that people that have been doing it for a long time never ever lose gear. And they know where the fish bite and when and at what time of the year. They just have all this stored up knowledge and know all the routes and everything. But I thought that it was fun still, I don't get discouraged easily haha, and I just did my best. thank you! Yay for making boring jobs better! Sorry for my grammar/coherence is going to shit! I need to go to bed

How did your license work, quota or openings? I used to fish halibut (quota) and salmon (openings) in northern BC. Also we may have blockaded the Alaska ferry once.

We had openings and were fishing for salmon, but I also used to fish halibut and blackcod on another boat with quota.

are other fishing boats territorial, ie try and intimidate you out of their area/spot?

not too much, most of the good drags are pretty well known, and sometimes there will be 15 boats trying to follow the same mile long line back and forth. Of course, everybody has their secret spots. These the fishermen will guard with their lives but if you show up they will share it with you because they have to! Like if you are just running along then damn...what is so and so doing over there by that rock? I'm going to check that out... The trollers get into code groups. 2-4 boats will invent a code and communicate over the radio via code how much they are catching and where. They will all four split up, go to different runs, then the one catching fish will call the other three over. Most serious fisherman are super hardcore about their groups and will never tell anybody anything, and will get super pissed if they tell you something and you go and tell it to another boat. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much everybody told us! The dude I bought the boat from for one showed us all his old spots since he wouldn't be fishing anymore, and random strangers from around the docks would come over to chat and end up pointing out some runs. I think they all thought it wouldn't matter because we wouldn't catch anything anyway haha and they all wanted to be nice to the kids because thats how they all started.

[deleted]

This sounds good! Too bad I don't own the boat anymore. We could try stealing my brothers sailboat, its semi rigged for fishing and he never uses it!

So how long did you go without a shower?

too damn long. luckily the tenders have showers aboard you can use. that was a life saver! and I did shower once in a small waterfall! that was cool if freezing, but then I got paranoid of falling rocks and gave it up

How do you fish on a bigger boat like that? Like hook and lure? If so how many rods do you normally have off the side at once?

this kind of shows it but really inaccurately. Two long poles hang off either side of the boat (photo on right) and four metal lines hang down from each, one at the tip and one at the center. They stream back into the water diagonally. They don't float on top because they have leads on the bottom and they don't sink straight down because the motion of the boat pushes them back. Each of these four lines has about 20 or so smaller lines coming off, each with a lure of some sort and a hook. I know there is some good art in AK depicting this from an underwater view but I can't locate any of it online.

Strangest thing you ever caught in your nets?

We used lines not nets sorry! I don't recall any super interesting finds...lots of seaweed...

Summer before last ('11) I worked in Sitka and had to catch my ride to work at the Halibut Point Marina. One day a local I was chatting with pointed out a young couple who were refueling their own small boat (newly painted and such) and were learning the trade the independent way. I had mad respect for their story and hope it was y'all, 'cause small world, Big Island.

That was the summer I went! We only refueled once at the Halibut Point Marina so thats awesome if it was us. I hope you didn't see us failing. The caps on the tank were really hard to get off and our gauge was kind of broken so we had to shout back and forth from the engine room and stop and start and stop and UGH I hated that.

What did you primarily fish for?

Salmon!

What does fresh salmon taste like? I love me some sashimi and always wanted to prepare some at home but this "sushi grade" bs gets me worried.

Soooooo good. The freshness is key. Once its been frozen, even if you get it at a restaurant within a few days of me catching it, you lose that. A lot of people actually say a fresh salmon is better after one day, but the only thing I've noticed with that is that the texture is mushier if you eat it right off and I don't mind so much

How long did it take until you didn't smell fish?

Idk, I've always smelled fish in my life haha. I don't smell fish in other words.

Can i call your captain sugar britches?

Yes

Your dog looks just like mine... She's not this little anymore, but I'm having trouble finding a more recent picture and I'm at work.

It was slightly surreal flipping through your album of my dog.

Cute! What breed??

She's a mix of Siberian Husky and German Sheppard. We call her a Gerberian Huskered.

EDIT: Pointing out- Since she was little her white spot extended up around her muzz like your dog's, seriously their colors are exactly the same. Only difference I see (besides my dog now being fat) is my dog has Heterochromia.

haha that is awesome! so much better than German Husky! Although Siberian Shepherd does have a certain ring to it also...

Here's two I took over Christmas:

http://i.imgur.com/grjnm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/adQqd.jpg

aww they do look really similar! Its hard to find the black stripe down the face that actually touches with the black nose, that is where I find she is different than a lot of the other black masked malamutes we see.

How much was the boat and how did you earn the cash to buy it?

See my other replies please :)

Whoa? You made 60k fishing on some other dudes boat? Is that typical? Why'd you stop?

Nah I made 24 grand on the other fishing boat, my cousin made another 24, and we borrowed the rest. Paying that is one of the reasons we sold the boat. Its hard to say if things are typical in a fishery with quota, because every boat has a different amount of pounds of fish that they can catch. But I got a typical "crew share" that is to say percentage of the gross money the boat made. I had some friends that were deckhands on net fishing boats while I was trolling (that fishery is not quota based I don't think) and they made 30 grand that summer. So it can be pretty normal.
I stopped longlining because it is a very time consuming fishery. I'd be doing it from halfway through spring quarter to halfway through fall quarter. So I would just go to college winter quarter. I did this for two years then was like wait...this isn't getting anywhere. Since I have 8 years of school to attend....being 21 and still not having my 2-year transfer degree is not cool.

What do you want to study?

I want to go to Veterinary School and work in wildlife conservation hopefully with endangered species.

Do you guys ever plan on having someone else to help? It is something i was always interested in trying but knew i could never really get courage up to fly myself out there for 6 months and do it on my own.

No, you don't need more than two, and we don't do it anymore. You should try! Even if you don't get on a fishing boat the cannery is not shabby money if you work through the summer at it, they give you like 9,000 hours.

Question about your dog. Is that a wolf mix of some sort? Cause I know a dog who looks just like that who's part husky and part wolf.

Nope! Holds in rant about wolf hybrids.

You don't approve? I admit I only know a couple and they're both super nice

Oh no, I love the beast themselves, but its the way the industry is handled in my country that pisses me off. Americans are assholes and the dogs pay the price, often with their lives. Now if we could get some regulation in here, stop owners and breeders from lying their asses off about everything, and maybe have a fucking IQ test associated with hybrid ownership...we might be on the path to having some awesome wolf dogs integrated into our community. But the way shit is now, realistically, the wolfdogs are better off banned entirely, regardless of the few good owners.

Where in Alaska do you live? What is the size of your boat? What do you fish?

You can find all that in my other replies :)

I'M SORRY THAT MY DOG IS IN ALL OF THEM!

That is definitely not something you need to apologize for.

Do you know why it was called the Byng?

I don't know! I thought it was dumb though. When we first got it we were all ready to paint the baby blue parts forest green and rename it the "Fangorn" but that would have been not cool amongst the locals. You are not really allowed to mess about with the names (even the color schemes) of old boats, and everybody will get really mad if you do. They are what they are. Plus it is supposed to be really bad luck. (Unless they sink and are dragged up, then you should rename them.)

Where were you and what did you fish for? Were you on the bering strait fishing for crab, or on the southeast working for tenders?

I'm going to start off by saying that I didn't realize I was hungry until I read your username! So yum. I was in the southeast on a trolling boat. I did not work for or on a tender but I did sell to one twice. Mainly I sold to SPC in Sitka, AK since I was a member there and they have showers and a room with a couch they let you use. (So bliss)

When I was a young woman, I worked on a Processor for many months. I have a good idea of what hell you went through..hats off!

Cool! Were you up North?