Important note to our members: We are preparing a major re-launch of the AFJC website, with dramatically improved interfaces, features and employer search capabilities. Please watch your email for instructions coming soon.
Skippers, listen up. You have 100% free access to our crew applicants.
At the Alaska Fishing Jobs Center, we provide adventurous job-seekers with great fishing boat jobs, by connecting them directly with the fishing boat captains licensed by the state of Alaska.
We love Alaska, we love fishing for a living, and we hope you will join us. How? It's simple:
Step 1:Sign upand become a member for a non-recurring, lifetime fee of only $35.95. Step 2: Download the AFJC Handbook for a solid understanding of Alaska fishing boat jobs, the Alaskan commercial fishing industry and the things captains look for when they hire. Check out an excerpt here. Step 3:Post your Crew Profile in our online applicant database. Step 4:And get interviewed for fishing jobs through email and phone, by Alaskan fishing boat captains who have free, unlimited access to your profile. These are the people who do the hiring, run the boats and write the checks.
There are a lot more jobs available in Alaska than there are smart, motivated and adventurous job-seekers, so please help us spread the word.
February 2010 Update
Here's a real good overview of what it's like to work on a fishing boat in Alaska. This article was written by the founder of AFJC.
Alaska is once again the nation's #1 fishing state, a position it's held since 1975. The state's 2008 harvest revenues, just released, came in at $1.7 billion. The number of people directly employed in Alaska's seafood industry in 2008? 52,000!
The Bristol Bay sockeye season came in big last summer. Weather was great, fishing was steady, and when it wrapped up at the end of July, thirty one million sockeye salmon were harvested by the hard working crews of "The Bay's" 1,450 fishing boats. Thirty one million fish. What a year.
But gues what? The Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game is predicting an even BIGGER run in 2010.
We just got a nice letter from Travis Brown, who lives in Houston. We thought we'd share this right on our home page, because it captures the whole idea behind AFJC, and the reasons we began this website back in 1998.
I'd like to thank AFJC for all the info in the handbook I got last year. I sent out about a hundred letters to skipper's addresses that I got from AFJC, and I got a job on a salmon gillnetter. I wrote the letter based on the examples in the handbook, and it worked.
I worked one season in Bristol Bay, and from there I won a spot on a tender boat and headed to Kodiak. I stayed on that boat for three months and then I won myself a job on a pot fishing boat where I learned some new skills that helped my fishing career.
Once you get to Alaska the opportunities are endless. The work is hard, with long hours, but the money is great. One thing I suggest before you head up is to learn some knots. Believe me, it will help you stand out from the rest and help you get more work.
This summer, I will be heading back up to Bristol Bay on a tender boat, which off-loads the smaller fishing boats. I will be up there for herring and salmon in Bristol Bay, then to Southeast for more salmon. I will also be working on a crab boat this fall in the Bering Sea.
If it were not for AFJC I would never have had the opportunities that I had. I took some great pictures and saw almost all the boats from The Deadliest Catch.
Thank you again, AFJC. And for all of you thinking about whether or not to do this, it will be the best thirty-five bucks you ever spend.
