Southpa Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 Just when I was losing faith in our federal government, they turn around and ask me to work for them. I'll be heading out tomorrow morning to a small town on west coast Vancouver Island called Zeballos, BC. Its quaint, its picturesque and its wild! gonna be a paid vacation. I'll be running a crew to examine commercial troll caught salmon for coded wire tags (hatchery origin) and collect biological samples (DNA, scales etc.) while they offload fishing boats. This is the same seasonal job I've done for the past 12 years while working for a consulting firm that used to run the contracts. Since DFO (Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans) took the contracts over I was told there was little budget to hire me, they only wanted locals etc. can't pay for accomodation, mileage etc. etc. Now they suddenly have a need to check EVERY commercially caught salmon during the month of May. Sort of an inventory/stock assessment. All of a sudden all this money shows up, huh! They've realized that you just can't do this work without the proper training. I was told they are having problems with some of the local "hippies" they hired in a few areas. Some guys don't know the difference between a sockeye and a shoe! I might even consider making a proposal to them to offer a training program for dockside monitoring of commercial salmon. I managed to wrangle a little more money that what I was paid before. They will provide accomodation and a rental truck for me and hopefully a meal allowance. TAC (total allowable catch) is 35,000 chinook salmon and they figure that might be caught by mid month, so I'll be seeing you guys in a couple weeks! Quote Link to comment
Drak Posted April 30, 2004 Report Share Posted April 30, 2004 DO YOU GET TO CARRY SIDEARMS AND SHOOT THE POACHERS? hehehe... Have a good time, maybe pick up some artifacts to go on the next axe as a tailpiece or somethin'... Quote Link to comment
jbkim Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 "So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish." Quote Link to comment
Brian Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 "Don't forget to pack a towel" Quote Link to comment
VanKirk Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Good luck, Southpa! Smelling like fish isn't so bad when you're getting paid bank, eh? Pretty area your goig to as well. Have fun and make money, dude! Quote Link to comment
Southpa Posted May 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2004 Back again, things are so unpredictable in this business. The fish were caught too quickly IMO. So they closed the fishery on the 3rd day. We got some work done and they plan on reopening on the 15th. I sure don't see a career in the works here, but I'll go out again anyway. Worked in the pouring rain, and saw a few nice fish. Its nice to get out of town anyway. So its back to work on my SG! Quote Link to comment
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