Call Me Fishmeal

Call me Fishmeal.
That is what I will be in several months, when I fly back from Alaska. Yes. Icicle Seafoods Inc. has offered me employment during the summer season of 2007. The Human Resource lady in Seattle I talked to this afternoon said that I would be working on the Bering Star, a 220-foot barge that has been processing fish for Icicle since 1979. The barge was originally for cargo. At some time before the Bering Star (probably not the original name) processed fish, it hauled bananas in the Philippines.

There is absolutely nothing about the job that is appealing to me. Except the money, and a chance to run away from the status quo--exactly Ishmael's motives! Fish processing is cold, wet, bloody, (de)assembly line work. The information I have read online (www.icicleseafoods.com) includes warnings that fish processing is not for everyone. The work is repetitive and long. During the peak of the salmon season, processors can work up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. The money is probably the only thing that attracts anybody. Overtime, of course, adds up incredibly. That is where the profit is. . . You work tons, and you don't spend any money, living on a barge in a region of little population.

A fish processor is one in a mass. Icicle Seafoods Inc. runs several processors, one on land in Egegik, Alaska, and four floating operations. Employees can be moved about, for whatever reason. Room and board is provided. I will be enjoying dorm style living--4 to 8 people per room! I suspect the living spaces are rather compact, since it is a floating vessel. Who knows, perhaps we will sleep in hammocks, and when somebody dies, we'll sew them up in their bed and give them a good sea funeral. (I was always fascinated by such stories.)

I wonder who will be my co-workers. Mostly young people? Men? Women? Alaska residents? I have the impression that it is quite diverse. Still, I suspect the population will be male dominated. That will be a change! Good? Dangerous? I'm hoping my parents will let me go.

I wonder if I will let me go? I am still amazed I applied. Even the force that makes this job available to me is against my desire to save the ocean and make the world eat right. The Pequod made a dent in the sperm whale population. I will now make a dent in the world's salmon species. I do not like the idea. I want the fish to thrive and die, as they do naturally. Who knows, I may end up somewhere along the road that your flaky fast food fish fillet traveled. Not good for you, and not good for the ocean. Really, it is a depressing thought. Yet, I am going. I doubt I will ever find a job that will satisfy all my morals. Maybe I'll try organic farming someday, after I am done paying loans and wanting to travel far and wide--which will be never.

There is one thing that may keep me from being hired by Icicle Seafood Inc. Most of their contracts run from June 12 through September 10. School begins for me on September 5. I will be faxing some "proof of enrollment" next Monday, so that they can write a special contract for me. I have said that I can work through August 30--the 31st is my birthday! I am suspecting that my 21st birthday will be the best day of my life, since it could be the first day in several months that I do not gut fish.