Dream of fishing in Alaska? Gig Harbor class will train you, help you find a job
Being part of a commercial fishing crew takes training.
Mending nets, navigating and line handling are part of the job, among other skills.
Soon, a class in Gig Harbor will teach them.
Longtime captain Gregg Lovrovich will help teach the new “Crew School,” officially called the Purse Seine Vessel Crew Member Training Program.
“I’m looking forward to sharing my commercial fishing experience with program participants and to introducing a younger generation to purse seining,” Lovrovich said in a news release. “For me, well, I can’t imagine earning my livelihood in any other way.”
The Gig Harbor BoatShop and Washington Sea Grant are starting the program, which begins April 11 and costs $100.
Lovrovich will teach the first four days of the program. Then Washington Sea Grant instructors will spend two days on safety training. Sea Safety and Survival and First Aid at Sea courses are part of the class.
The idea is to teach commercial fishing skills and to help skippers find crew members. Students will get a certificate at the end of the course and help searching for a gig.
Students will spend time on the water in south Puget Sound, in the Ancich Netshed in Gig Harbor, and in a classroom. They’ll learn how to set and haul nets and will get a sense of what life as a crew member is like.
The focus will be on purse seiners. Those that fish in Alaska are up to 58 feet long and have a crew of about five. The season is from mid-June to early September.
“… any given vessel’s participation varies in length within that window of time,” the news release said. “Crew members live aboard for the entire season, and often visit towns like Petersburg, Sitka or Kodiak to unload fish or get provisions.”
They earn a percentage of the total catch.
After a couple disappointing years, 2021 was one of the best seasons in some time, skippers told the Gateway last year.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that by late August Alaska’s salmon harvest had “topped 201 million fish, well above the 190 million projected at the start of the season.”
“People say wild salmon are getting extinct, but that’s far from the truth,” Lovrovich told the Gateway in September after his vessel returned to Gig Harbor for the season. “They really take care of the runs up in Alaska — they make sure the fish survive and return to the creeks.”
Call 253-857-9344 or visit gigharborboatshop.org for more information about the class.
This story was originally published January 30, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
