PM_a_llama

What's something positive about being in your position?

That makes me feel terrible. I was hoping you had something positive to focus on every day. What about your family? Or friends? In New Zealand we say "Kia Kaha" It means "Stay strong".

I can't believe I have never heard this pun used out there. Ha.

Yes. I was at the start. That only pushed me to work my ass off go harder than the rest of the boys and I learnt how to do every single job in the factory. Last trip I was put in the freezers as there was no one else on our shift really capable of doing it. I found it very difficult to start off with as I had to push out 1 tonne freezers, then box them up in 25kg boxes and then stow them down in the hold which is -30 something degrees Celsius. Every hour. Oh god it killed me. But it felt good to be doing a mans job. I try fight the sexism by proving I am capable of doing things but I don't bother trying to go on deck as it's really a boy zone and I would just find it awkward invading that territory.

We are assigned quota every year so that stops people from over fishing. If we catch a large amount of fish that is too small we move areas. I think we do rather well in sustaining a good environment for the marine population as I live in New Zealand and we fish in our waters and you know how this country likes to hold its Clean & Green image. I always worried about dolphins before I started fishing but I have never seen nor heard of one being caught. We also have a metal bar thingy on the top of our nets for when we fish down south so if a seal gets stuck in the net he can escape through the opening the metal allows. Also certain procedures have to be followed if a bird is caught in the net but I've only seen it happen twice and the birds got out okay.