MOE BOWSTERN
I arrived with a college degree, a smart mouth, and a thirst for alcohol. I quit drinking cold turkey after that first summer. I've replaced that demon alcohol with this fishing. Yes, it's dangerous, but... more of my friends have been lost to alcohol and drugs, and suicide and cancer, than from boat wrecks. And fishing is a lot more fun.
My first task was to haul in a halibut as big as me. I'm straddling this huge fish — they can weigh 300 pounds — and it's bucking under me. I felt like I was on a bronco.
Moe Bowstern graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in English literature. She landed a job on a halibut boat in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1990.
Bowstern's duties have ranged from chopping and loading bait for crab pots to setting seine nets for salmon.