Hollis Jennings, a deceivingly frail thirty-one-year old from Kentucky has been fishing in South-East Alaska for almost ten years.

The hardest thing for a skipper each season is to assemble a great crew of fishermen who will be ready to push personal limits and work in harmony with each other. Hollis is known to hire more women than other captains, although she denies doing it on purpose. There was a crew of four women and two men on the boat at the time I was there. According to the locals, it was the first time ever the women outnumbered men on a fishing boat.

Twenty hour work days past the point of exhaustion in a wet environment, often in bad weather and harsh waters, while hands are being split and sliced by nets, ropes and the fish itself - the job is not for the faint of heart.

On the other hand, swayed by the striking natural beauty of Alaska, the simplicity of life, and the sense of personal challenge many people stay on the boat for a lifetime.