chapter 1 On the Job at Sea The Time Bandit pulls out of an Alaskan harbor in mid February It is headed to the Bering Sea for several weeks of fishing for crabs or crabbing This commercial fishing vessel is built to survive big 40-foot 12-meter waves It weighs 298 tons and is 113 feet 34 4 m long It’s a good thing because the ship will meet some of these waves during its trip The galley freezer and pantry are loaded with meat cereal and canned goods Deckhands eat huge meals when they are out at sea They work 18 to 20-hour shifts The meals help them keep up their strength 4 21st century skills library
Even a simple task on a boat can be life-threatening so fishermen need common sense 5
Crabs are caught in special cages called pots which come in all shapes and sizes The Time Bandit heads out far to the sea Deckhands bait the bulky crab pots that will capture the crabs The pots are 700-pound 317 5 kilograms steel traps They bait it with the types of fish that crabs like to eat such as sardines herring and cod Then they throw the pots into the water A buoy marks the location of each crab pot After the last pot is dropped the ship returns to where the first pots were dropped and hauls them back up A whole day may pass before a pot is brought back on deck Hopefully the pot will be full of crabs Fishermen and women measure and sort the crabs Crabs that are too small are released 6 21st century skills library
back into the sea Off the coast of California Mike Hudson heads out to sea He is in a 37 4-foot 11 4 m vessel called the Cash Flow II He and his wife Yvette fish for wild king salmon They will fish about 75 miles 121 kilometers offshore but their job won’t be easy California has been facing drought conditions for the past couple of years Salmon hatch in fresh river waters and migrate to the ocean But there is less and less water to flush the salmon out to the sea In years past millions of salmon swam in the ocean off of California In 2015 that number was estimated to be just 630,000 21st Century Content In 2012 U S commercial fishermen landed 9 6 billion pounds 4 4 billion kg of seafood valued at 5 1 billion Below are the top five states that caught the most Alaska 5 3 billion pounds 2 4 billion kg Louisiana 1 2 billion pounds 544 million kg Virginia 461 9 million pounds 209 5 million kg Washington 420 1 million pounds 190 5 million kg California 358 2 million pounds 162 5 million kg 7 COOL VOCATIONAL CAREERS
