JOE UPTON, BERING SEA BLUES: A CRABBER'S TALE OF FEAR IN THE ICY NORTH--SLIDESHOW INCLUDED (RESCHEDULED FROM DECEMBER)
02/03/2012 7:00 pm
Location:
- Street:
- 1200 11th St
- City:
- Bellingham ,
- Province:
- Washington
- Postal Code:
- 98225-7015
- Country:
- United States
The Bering Sea with its notoriously bad weather and wild seas is one of the most dangerous places on earth for commercial fishing. Joe Upton, author of the forthcoming memoir Bering Sea Blues: A Crabber's Tale of Fear in the Icy North, discovered this first hand.
Upton, just 25, was the youngest guy aboard when the 104-foot Flood Tide pulled out of Seattle in March 1971 headed north with 700-pound crab pots stacked three deep on her deck. It was a top-heavy load that caused anxiety every time the vessel iced up and the crew scrambled on deck with baseball bats and hammers to break off the ice as vessel rolled sluggishly from side to side, and everyone held their breath.
This is going to be a hell of a season, Upton thought to himself. And it was. Upton writes about the crew’s relentless 12- to 14-hour days setting and hauling pots, searching for those elusive pockets on the ocean floor that could yield as much as 70 tons of crab. For the lucky ones there were huge financial rewards.For others, surviving was their reward.
In his memoir from that season, Upton explores the origins of the Bering Sea's king crab fishery, predating TV’s “The Deadliest Catch,” shares his own experiences, and reflects on the rich history of the North Pacific, the spectacular emptiness of Alaska’s remote southwest coast, and nature’s maelstrom on the meanest sea on Earth.
Upton, just 25, was the youngest guy aboard when the 104-foot Flood Tide pulled out of Seattle in March 1971 headed north with 700-pound crab pots stacked three deep on her deck. It was a top-heavy load that caused anxiety every time the vessel iced up and the crew scrambled on deck with baseball bats and hammers to break off the ice as vessel rolled sluggishly from side to side, and everyone held their breath.
This is going to be a hell of a season, Upton thought to himself. And it was. Upton writes about the crew’s relentless 12- to 14-hour days setting and hauling pots, searching for those elusive pockets on the ocean floor that could yield as much as 70 tons of crab. For the lucky ones there were huge financial rewards.For others, surviving was their reward.
In his memoir from that season, Upton explores the origins of the Bering Sea's king crab fishery, predating TV’s “The Deadliest Catch,” shares his own experiences, and reflects on the rich history of the North Pacific, the spectacular emptiness of Alaska’s remote southwest coast, and nature’s maelstrom on the meanest sea on Earth.
2012 Chuckanut Writers Conference
