A lack of local boats along with the aging community have led to a shortage of younger fishermen in Unalaska.
Maggie Nelson, KUCB - UnalaskaOn nice weekends, F/V Raven Bay captain and owner Dustan Dickerson takes about three local teens on a short trip just a few miles from town for a behind-the-scenes look at the life of Unalaska’s small boat fishermen. It was still dark at Unalaska’s Robert Storrs Small Boat Harbor, just before 5 a.m. on a fair spring morning.
“I’m not [sick] yet,” Parker said when asked if he gets seasick out on the open ocean. “On ‘Deadliest Catch’ when the waves are hitting the boat and they’re all like falling over and stuff — I thought that would be kinda fun.” “Last summer, I actually asked [Dickerson] if he could take me and some friends out, and he told us that we should invest in a little boat and a tote and a jigging machine for fish,” Kaidon said. “But we couldn’t do that. We didn’t have any money.”
The three local teens watch seagulls trail the boat, as the crew waits to haul another string of pots. Pictured left to right: Corynn Lekanoff, Kaidon Parker and Anatoly Fomin. On nice weekends, Dickerson takes about three local teens along for a short trip just a few miles from town. He shows them how a commercial fishing vessel runs. UNFA is helping fund the program by paying for things like crew licenses and survival suits for Dickerson’s extra passengers.
Dickerson’s story is one that he said is less feasible now. He entered the fishing industry first through processing, then went to longlining, bought his first boat and finally got into pot fishing in the under 60-foot fleet, which locally he said saw major growth around the early 2000s. “What it’s doing is creating a labor pool that we really need in the industry,” he said. “Kids that have been exposed to commercial fishing are far more likely to get into the industry than having graduated from high school without ever being on a boat.”
Eighth-grader Corynn Lekanoff watched the fishermen from a window in the galley, leaning over the sink to get a closer look at the sorting table.
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