Groundfish Observation in Alaska

January 3, 2008 6:44 PM

Has anyone worked as a Groundfish (or otherwise) fishing observer in Alaska?

I'm looking into a company which requires an initial reimbursable (suspicious?) fee. Although nothing comes for free, it seems like a good way to make suffering turn into money. Any first hand stories here? Is this reputable?

posted by iamck to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: As reputable as most in the observer industry and yeah, you'll get the money back if you finish the training etc. Saltwater pretty much suck in every way but your contact with will be minimal and they are one of the bigger companies and therefore have more work. Their main advantage to a lot of people is that they are based out of Anchorage and do more shore based boats (more time on shore, albeit in places like Kodiak and Akutan). The other big company, with a somewhat better rep, are AOI (Alaskan Observers Inc) based out of Seattle. They also typically contract with much nicer boats. If hot showers and clean underwear are ritically important to you, you might want to go with AOI.

There are various small companies but I don't know much about them anymore.
posted by fshgrl at 7:16 PM on January 3, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for the quick and informative response.
posted by iamck at 8:17 AM on January 4, 2008