Some of the finest people I've known seine by default. Most think or thought that there's easy money to be gained. It's certainly easy, but the money is questionable. $4,000.00 for 3000 hours work means that you earn less per hour than the average Turkish apple picker. Because of this, seiner crewmembers start the season walking on air and end it crying about how they're going to pay for the new F-150 that they fantasized about or the college that was supposed to allow them to quit fishing. My first year fishing I made enough to buy a warm jacket and a slurpy.

In spite of this, they continue to come. Being mostly college students and other vagrants, they come down to the dock showing their best side to the captain. By the time the boat returns in September, the only thing the skipper sees is their backside as they scramble up the gangway, duffle bag in hand.

There was a time when career crewmembers were common not impoverished, but that is long past. The last career crewmember that I came in contact with read Hustler like it was the Bible and read Readers Digest condensed books like they were books. This was in 1991 and last I heard he had a become a career alcoholic.