Still , there weren ’ t many days in which we were working those long 16-hour shifts due to the lack of fish . Which was partly due to the lack of luck of the fishermen .
Now the fishermen worked for the cannery and were given a flat fee for the season . They flew out on their own bill and got settled in town , and then got paid to the tune of a good ten grand . But that much green doesn ’ t go that far in a place like the Alaskan Peninsula where many of the goods and even a few of the services are imported . Even a bag of Doritos could cost 12 bucks .
Still , the fishermen act like the rock stars of the cannery . They have a lot of money to blow and boy do they blow it . It ’ s not uncommon to see a fisherman rocking a Gucci belt or a few gold chains . One guy revealed to me he had a baby mama in every port he fished in year in and year out . A few of the fishermen would even brag that they dropped a grand at a different bar every night .
A night out on the town with the fishermen usually meant that they would order a round of shots for everyone , that drinks for all the women at the bar would be paid for until closing time and usually towards closing time a fight might happen between two fishermen for one reason or another . The one I saw was over the placement of nets . Fishermen problems .
Due to the fact it was such a slow season , going into town was an enticing option for all of the bored workers of the cannery . There were just so many card games from other countries you could learn . The township in which we were close to hosted something like 400 people when it was not salmon season , but when those sockeye make their rush to spawn , the population triples .
The best way to get to town was to hitchhike . There was a taxi service that would drive people back to their perspective canneries ( the town had 5 or 6 operating on each side of the river ) but it would cost you over 40 dollars for two miles over flat country road . Not to mention the route to town was usually peppered with irascible drunks or , worse , bears . There were a lot of bears .
When we weren ’ t going to town or avoiding bears or trying to sleep while the sun was out ( it set around 1230 that month ), we did some work . Although the work itself wasn ’ t exactly as toilsome or backbreaking as I was lead to believe . I was imagining it to be like a early 20 th century factory with child labor and asbestos issues but found out they have labor rules and regulations even as far north as Alaska .
There were five main facilities at the cannery to work in : The Fish House , Case Up , The Cannery , Tail Up and the Egg House . The Fish House was where all the fish , hauled in from the fishing boats , would come in to be gutted . This was the wettest place and the one where you could expect be fish-slapped at least a few times .
From the Fish House , the salmon either go to Case Up or The Cannery . In Case Up , frozen filets are packaged and shipped to your local high-end restaurant where they charge fifty dollars per filet . At The Cannery , the fish that aren ’ t pretty enough to be put next to some parsley end up in tall cans to later be eaten by cats . In Tail-Up , the cans are steamed and cooked inside of their metal containers .
The Egg House is where all the salmon roe goes , since Salmon Eggs are an expensive commodity in China . In fact , one of the cannery rumors ( of which there were many ) was that the salmon eggs paid for the whole operation . Our flight to Alaska , all our meals , our places to sleep , all were comped and accounted for . If the eggs covered all of that , then the filets and the canned food for cats and the smoked salmon was all net profit . For someone at least .
At the end of the summer , due to the slow start of the season , we , the temporary pay-by-the-hour cannery employees , didn ’ t get paid all that much . I wouldn ’ t be surprised if some people might have spent too much in town and on expensive imported drinks and Doritos and ended up with less cash then they started out with . But maybe that ’ s the price you pay for wanting a change in your environment .
15 THE CONE - ISSUE # 11 - 2017