Ice and snow in Alaska ground Seattle fishermen 2.16.2012

This is an interesting article featuring a Deckhand, Ryan Minvielle, from the Pacific Mariner. His description of the ice and the problems it causes gives us a better idea of what the crews are dealing with.

Ice and snow in Alaska ground Seattle fishermen

MY BALLARD

Posted by Geeky Swedes on February 16th, 2012

By Chris Foster

Ryan Minvielle is getting a mid-winter break thanks to one of the coldest winters Alaska has seen in years. Freezing temperatures, relentless snow and ice have forced many vessels to stop fishing until the weather warms up.

Minvielle, a deckhand for the Pacific Mariner and graduate of Ingraham High School, said that while being back in Seattle is nice, he would rather be fishing for Opilio crab.

Ryan Minvielle with a catch during the last King Crab season

“It cuts into our time after fishing,” he said. “By now we probably could’ve gotten at least one or two trips in. Our boat holds about 200,000 pounds of crab. We would’ve been half way to a million [pounds] by now.”

Minvielle’s boat is currently tied up in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. He says that the bad weather allowed for some maintenance work to be done, so they’ll be ready to fish as soon as the ice is gone.

“We put in some new conveyor belts so we don’t have to push the crab to the tank chute,” he said.

While Minvielle is back home in Seattle, Brandon Smotherman—a deckhand for the Cascade Mariner who is also from Seattle—isn’t so lucky. Smotherman and his crew are staying with the boat in Alaska, to do some maintenance work of their own.  Click to read more: