| Working on the Edge: Surviving in the World's Most Dangerous Profession: King Crab Fishing on Alaska's High Seas Contributor(s): Walker, Spike (Author) |
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ISBN: 0312089244 ISBN-13: 9780312089245 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin OUR PRICE: $18.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 1993 Annotation: Now in paperback, a dramatic insider's account of the world's most dangerous profession: king-crab fishing in the frigid waters of the Bering Sea where the conditions are beyond most imaginations (90 mph Arctic winds, 25-foot seas, and superhuman stretches of on-deck labor). But the payback, if one survives, can be tens of thousands of dollars for a month-long season. Photographs. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Technology & Engineering | Agriculture - General - Nature |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 92041308 |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (0.75 lbs) 312 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Pacific Northwest - Geographic Orientation - Alaska |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: No profession pits man against nature more brutally than king crab fishing in the frigid, unpredictable waters of the Bering Sea. The yearly death toll is staggering (forty-two men in 1988 alone); the conditions are beyond most imaginations (90-mph Arctic winds, 25-foot seas, and super-human stretches of on-deck labor); but the payback, if one survives can be tens of thousands of dollars for a month-long season. In a breathtaking, action-packed account that combines his personal story with the stories of survivors of the industry's most harrowing disasters, Spike Walker re-creates the boom years of Alaskan crab fishing--a modern-day gold rush that drew hundreds of fortune-and adventure-hunters to Alaska's dangerous waters--and the crash that followed. |
Contributor Bio(s): Walker, Spike: - Spike Walker spent nine seasons as a crewman aboard some of the most successful crab boats in the Alaskan fleet. While "working on the edge," the crewmen's term for laboring in the brutal outer reaches of the Bering Sea, Spike encountered 110-mph winds, rode out one of the worst storms in Alaska's history, worked nonstop for seventy-four hours without sleep, participated in record catches of king crab, saw ships sink, helped rescue their crews, and had close friends die at sea. In addition to his crab-fishing experience, Spike Walker has worked in the offshore oilfields of Louisiana and Texas; along the Mississippi River as a certified, commercial deep-sea diver; and in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska as a logger. He is the author of several works of nonfiction, including Working on the Edge, Nights of Ice, and Coming Back Alive. |