Dirty jobs was an interesting theme that I can relate to. Many people in my area rely on fisheries as a livelihood and sustenance. Specifically, the commercial fishing industry that employs many seasonal First Nation people year to year. There is a high demand for fresh water fish to go to market from the Canadian and American side of the border. I have had experience as a young man in this industry and it was brutal day in and day out work but smelling like fish all the time was unpleasant.

The fishing industry is very robust in the Lake of the Woods area in Northwestern Ontario. The entire lake is huge spanning from the west of the Manitoba border to the southern American border, easterly following the highway 17 from Fort Frances to Kenora in Northwestern Ontario.

The Alaska king crab fishery is not only a dirty job but dangerous. Statistically, fisheries has the second highest fatality rate. Many times on the deadliest catch series crab boats are in peril or fisherman become sick or terribly hurt at sea. Recently, a pair of fisherman were stranded on an island on Lake of the Woods for a few days. Kenora on-line reported: “On Wednesday, police in Kenora and Fort Frances were dispatched to the report of the two missing men, from the Buena Vista resort on the southern end of the Lake of the Woods. It was reported that the boat was last seen near Fadden’s Island on October 9. ”Helicopters, police, and search teams dispatched but mostly area fisherman guides and commercial fisherman were most concerned and on the lookout for the pair that went missing.

Throughout the years I have watched the show deadliest catch with amazement. The relation I can a test to what those Alaska king crab fisherman endure. Knowingly, pulling a dozen fishnets in blustering snow cold fall weather, fingers freezing, face numb. In late fall was surreal. Alaska weather would be quite different from Northwestern Ontario, what was the topic of discussion on Wikipedia: according to University of Alaska economist Gunnar Knapp. “The environment in which the crabbing is done, in the Bering Sea, in winter, has to be some of the worst conditions on Earth. You’re hundreds of miles from port, in stormy seas, with ice forming all over, sometimes so thick it capsizes the boat.” Similarities, vary quite dramatically though from Lake of the Woods commercial fishing and Alaska king crab fisheries.

 

https://kenoraonline.com/local/missing-fishermen-found

2.71.1 http://www.menatrisk.org/health/dangerousjobs.html