Pot Cod and Trawlers in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska: from several years working aboard these boats as a biologist.

“As I step out onto the back deck my senses are flooded; the slam of a wave hitting the bow, the bite of cold ocean spray, the whine of the hydraulics and the cacophonous chatter of hungry birds. I pause for a moment to take it all in. A massive pile of fish lay before me and Lex, a Samoan deckhand from Seattle, balances on an aluminum bin board placed on top of them. I know that without the board he would sink into the viscous pile of bodies. We are fishing in what is called “the trough” where the boat moves diagonally to the large swell causing it to rock back and forth wildly.”