Commercial anglers head north to Alaska

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"The rules are, you press the coffee button before the engine button,” said the authoritative skipper. Fishing is serious business.

This spring, Amy "Shredder" Schaub, 36, became skipper of the FV Norsel, doubling the number of female skippers seining for salmon in Southeast Alaska. (The other is Hollis Jennings, skipper of the FV Natalie Gail.)

Schaub's is a story of determination, unwavering perseverance and dogged hard work, happily rewarded. For years she's chased her dream, and in the form of Norsel, her hard work sees its just reward – in this case, more hard work.

Since buying Norsel from Steve Huestis in April, the Port Townsend resident has been faced with the responsibilities of a new captain preparing to head north for the June 15 season opener.

Before departing Port Townsend on June 11, she was so busy she got up at 5 a.m. each day and worked until midnight. Along with the paperwork, there were parts to buy, charts to acquire for Alaskan and Canadian waters, and making the boat ready.

On June 1, Norsel passed her U.S. Coast Guard inspection with flying colors. Coast Guard inspector John Turner said, "[Norsel] was one of the cleaner, most organized vessels I've seen, especially regarding purse seiners.... It was like she was getting ready to go fishing that afternoon.”

PURSE SEINERS

Purse seiners catch fish in a big net that’s set in a circle using a powerful seine skiff, a vital piece of equipment that's carried on deck during long transits. The net closes like a drawstring purse to keep the fish in, and is hauled onboard using an enormous power block, like a giant pulley, attached to a stout boom.

The seine fishery one of the most lucrative fisheries, and therefore the hardest to break into. It’s tightly regulated, and entry is limited; permits can cost as much or more than the boat.

The skipper must also be wise in the ways of business and negotiations, securing loans and brokering deals, paying astronomical insurance rates and signing documents that commit her to paying back frighteningly large sums, of which she’s unwilling to share the details.

"Damn secretive fishermen," she joked.

Originally from Wisconsin and kind of a punk, Schaub worked on a tall ship, the Denis Sullivan of Milwaukee, before moving to PT in 2004. She graduated from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in 2005 and worked for Baird Boats/Haven Boatworks, Taku Marine, Freya Boats and the Shipwrights Co-op.

In 2008, Patrick O'Neil hired her as engineer on the St. Janet. "A seiner sounded like the best fit for me," Schaub said, "and it was." In 2009, she was deck boss.

HARD WORK

Schaub is one of those people who works all the time. She's longlined for halibut and black cod, and pot-fished for prawns in Alaska; seined for chum in Washington and for squid in California; and already has plans to work on a longliner in the Bering Sea next winter, fishing for gray cod. At times, her work ethic seems inhuman.

"I love getting up super early in the morning ... driving off the anchor and seeing what the day's going to bring," she said. "I just love fishing."

When did she decide she wanted her own boat? “When I started driving skiff,” she said, which was five years ago, when Huestis hired her on Norsel. "The skipper's on one end and the skiff man's on the other.”

That was during her third year in fishing, “and this’ll be my eighth year.”

From January until September 2013, Schaub and Ossian Smith did a "major overhaul" of Norsel, including an expanded engine room, a new forecastle, a new water tank, 80 percent new hydraulics, all new electrical wiring and a new PTO (power takeoff), as well as new keel bolts and bug shoe. The work was done in both Port Townsend and Seattle.

Upon hearing she'd bought a boat, 10 women who wanted to fish with a female skipper approached Schaub. For deckhands, she selected Allie Johnson, cook; Julia Kowalski, deck boss; Bud Reid, engineer; and Chuck Austin, an experienced skiffman. Ages range from 23 to 47.

‘A FISHY BOAT’

Norsel was built in 1950 in Poulsbo of Douglas fir. The engine is original: a 235-horsepower Caterpillar 343.

"Norsel" is a Scandinavian word meaning "north seal” – a creature also good at catching salmon.

“She’s a fishy boat,” Schaub said. “The boat has been known to catch a lot of fish. Some boats don’t have that.”

There are about 250 boats fishing in Southeast Alaska, selling their catches to a handful of companies. Schaub, along with about 40 other boats, is fishing for Ocean Beauty Seafoods, based in Petersburg, Alaska, and Excursion Inlet, Alaska. Other companies, such as Silver Bay Seafood and Trident Seafood, contract with approximately 70-80 boats, she said. Other companies include Icicle Seafood, Alaska General Seafood and E.C. Phillips.

On June 2, Schaub had just received the “tender list,” which gives information about the fishing tenders that are sent by the fleet manager to the fishing grounds. The tenders pick up the fish for delivery to the canneries or processors, allowing the fishing boats to keep fishing.

Norsel has a refrigerated seawater system. “We pump ocean water into a tank, chill it with a refrigeration system so it’s about 34 degrees,” Schaub said. Norsel's hold capacity is 55,000 pounds.

FISHING COMMUNITY

Not only is Schaub conscientious and seemingly indefatigable, she's an outstanding networker in both senses of the word; she makes nets and she knows how to talk to people. She's genuinely nice, and people gravitate toward her.

“I really love my fishing community,” she said. “Everybody is really supportive and really great.… If I need a spare part, they’ll try to get a spare part for me.”

She spent much of 2014 learning all she could about how fishermen get loans for boats and permits. She talked to everyone she could who could give her help or advice: small-business development centers, the fleet managers of fish markets, other fishing boat owners, captains, would-be captains and former owners, lawyers and people who’d gone through the process.

“I’m lucky. I've been really well supported,” she said. "Steve [Huestis], Chris Cornwall, FV Sea Gem, Eric Machias, FV Silverwave and Hollis Jennings, FV Natalie Gail have given me unending support and guidance," Schaub wrote in an email. "They will be my radio buddies and have been supporting me from the beginning in every step."

She spent a recent evening talking with some older fishermen, men who have fished for 40 years and 30 years respectively: Jim Brunsman of the FV Alert and Rocky Ertzberger with the FV Elvagene.

“They talked a lot about how it’s a gentleman’s fishery,” Schaub said. “Be nice and polite, and people are going to help you out. There’s competition, for sure; people want to get fish,” but “if you’re new and you get stuck, usually there’s someone you can call and they’ll help you out.”

Huestis bought a new boat, FV Martha, with a larger fish hold.

In December 2014, Schaub bought the net she'll use from Huestis, "before I even knew about the boat purchase," she said. It's "his old net, also a fishy net, last fished in 2013 – a big year."

The net is 250 fathoms long – 1,500 feet – and 350 meshes wide between the floats at the top and the leads at the bottom. It's got steel rings along the bottom edge and 150 fathoms of purse line, which is pulled to close the bottom of the net to trap fish inside.

Another important and expensive piece of equipment is the power block, an enormous roller on the top of a boom that pokes out over the boat's wide stern; it's used to pull in the net. The power block came with the boat as part of their purchase agreement, Schaub said.

“I can’t wait until I leave the dock,” she said. “All I want to do is let go the lines and fish.”