Fishing Jobs in Alaska

moosejoose

Hi posting to find out has anyone any experience of working in any of the fishing jobs in alaska, wheter on land processing or at sea fishing. I am thinking of going over for the summer as i need a fair bit of money to fund college/pay of a loan. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Nody

And exactly how was you planning on getting the visa allowing you to work?

moosejoose

well alaska being part of the usa I would assume a J1 would alow me to work there, unless it is different.

mikemac

I recommend you watch the Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel
http://www.discoverychannel.co.uk/dangerousjobs/deadliestcatch/crabfishing/index.shtml

Every few episodes someone almost gets killed or badly injured. There's been a few airlifts from the Coast Guard already this season.
Don't forget the 15 hours shifts in high seas

You'll earn your money for sure!

MagicMarker

Someone's been watching deadliest catch.

Forget about becoming a greenhorn, they're unlikely to hire you just for the summer and because of the show they get thousands of applicants. You could try the processing plants but a lot of people who want to get onto a ship generally start in a plant, so there's a lot of competition. Plus working in a plant won't earn any more money that you could earn in Ireland.

Tabnabs

These jobs really are the bottom of the barrel. A brother of a friend worked on the processing ship/plant and lasted a week. There's a reason most of the workers come from third world countries...

And if you've never worked on a fishing boat, you won't last more than a week in that job either.

These jobs are also amongst the most dangerous in the world and a newbie risks serious injury or death by virtue of their inexperience.

A quote from this website

During my contract with the fishing company, I worked sixteen hours per day for seventy-three consecutive days and made seventy-two hundred dollars. Seventy-three days multiplied by sixteen hours per day equals 1168 hours. Divide $7200 by 1168 hours and I discover that I earned $6.16 per hour.

moosejoose

I wasnt really looking at the crab fishing side of things as the season doesnt start untill the end of summer I know its gonna be hard work but id prefer the idea of working hard for 3 months doing something physical than being brain dead stacking shelves for the rest of the year. If anyone here has first hand experience it would be great to hear from ye.

piby

Mate you got be honest with yourself who in their right mind is going to take on an inexperienced college kid on a J1 to work one of the hardest jobs on the planet. They'll see college kid = easy life/ lazy, inexperienced = we'd have to train him, even if we do train him he'll be gone after 3/4 months. I'm not saying that this necessarily reflects your personality I'm sure you're a honest willing to work hard kinda guy but I think you need to be realistic. If it's just money you're looking for you'll find something either here in Eire or on a normal J1 a lot easier.

stevoman

your probobly better off becoming an ice road trucker.

moosejoose

Piby I get where your coming from alright, its just from researching it/talking to my dads friends who have done it for a few years it seems alot of students do it as a summer job for the same reasons. Just exploring my options at the moment. Keep the genuine advice coming.

Serafijn

If you know people who've done it you'd be best getting them to pass on some contacts and put in a good word for you. Having someone they know vouch for you will go a long way!

Try googling something like 'summer work abroad' and I'm sure there's loads of other opportunities, why limit yourself to just one option? Have you thought about something like Camp America? There's ones in Europe too and you might even get to pick up a second language

syberspud

Be a pirate instead. Great job and pay was $14+tips an hour in 2007. They also specifically hire Irish J1ers for the accent and the general drunkeness. Search Pirate Adventures via google.

sailerman

Hi so you want to go fishing,my advice is DON,T,i fished and trained in college as a fisherman with BIM, fished all around the coast of Ireland i went to Kodiac Island Alaska looking for a berth this was in the late 80,s i was only in my 20,s some of my friend,s worked on factory ship,s over there so i decided to give it a go,i spent the best part of 4 mths there Crab and Cod fishing if you ask me would i do it again NEVER,very dangerous work,very very long hour,s i had experience and i found it hard. For the hour,s that you have to work the money you earn it,s just not worth it,and been a GREENHORN,you would probably get 150 dollor,s a day divided by 20 hrs work,look for a fishing job in an Irish port for the summer .

Bligh

moosejoose wrote: »

Hi posting to find out has anyone any experience of working in any of the fishing jobs in alaska, wheter on land processing or at sea fishing. I am thinking of going over for the summer as i need a fair bit of money to fund college/pay of a loan. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Moosejoose,

Think you should listen to sailerman, have spent a few years fishing and it's hard and dangerous, however I did and still do like the job. If you want to give it a bash, try it at home first. Call the National Fisheries College at 074 9381068 get your 3 day safety training course done, its law to have this completed now before working on a fishing vessel. Then have a look around at some jobs in places like howth, greeencastle, castletownbere haven whereever you want. If you fish on the east coast it will probably be for prawns be perpared for very long hours maybe some 24 hour days. Anyway I would say go for it, it's a fantasic experience but take care.

moosejoose

Thanks for yere input lads, cool to here from some peole who actually did it.

trailerparkboy

Hve been to Alaska 4 time and lived there for a year, never done any fihing jobs, i mostly lived in Fairbanks and ketchikan, lots of fishing jobs in south east Alaska espically around ketchikan, juneau, if your into fish processing lots of jobs in st petersburg a really rough and ready but awesome town, have never been to dutch harbour but from what ive heard if you want to go out fishing in the crab boats you gotta be prepared as a greenhorn(novice)to die, one guy i was talking to who owened a boat had 5 greenhorns who all died before the end of the season, best to stick to the south east to get fishing jobs as its not as dangerous. Besides fishing there are tons of jobs in the summer which pay pretty well too, Alaska is a awesome place and the people are without doubt the best you will meet espically the natives who will love you if your Irish.