Before going to graduate school at the University of Washington, I made two voyages in the North Pacific as a Foreign Fisheries Obersver for the National Marine Fisheries Service. I was responsible for monitoring catches on board fishing vessels operating in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The picture at right shows me counting cod on a cold January day somewhere in the Gulf of Alaska or Bering Sea. I was on board a Japanese longliner for about two and a half winter months. I spent the summer of 1984 aboard a fishing vessel that was joint-venture fishing off the U.S. West Coast (Washington, Oregon and California). They were catching hake which shed their scales very easily. That made the work, wading through huge piles of fish, rather messy. To make matters even more pungent, the ship only turned on the hot water for showers once a week!
