The Entangling Net: Alaska’s Commercial Fishing Women Tell Their Lives

Truly remarkable portraits

of courage. – John van Amerongen, editor, Alaska Fisherman’s

Journal

These little-known tales

of women working in Alaska’s commercial fishing industry make for great

reading… . Readers will be amazed by their stories. – Laine

Welch, Alaska Fish Radio

A richly textured story,

a multi-genre text that invites readers to witness women’s conversation

with America’s last frontier, Alaska. – Patricia Foster, University

of Iowa

Why do women choose an occupation

that has been ranked the most dangerous in the nation? What do women give

up–and get in return–when they take on the tasks of fishermen? The

Entangling Net explores these issues through the stories of twenty

women who have chosen to work in this extremely risky, male-dominated

profession.

Leslie Leyland Fields lyrically

weaves their stories with her own experiences as a fishing woman. She

tells of long, exhausting days in skiffs, catching fish in brutally cold

weather on waters that are often violent. Her words and those of the women

she interviews convey the paradoxical relationship the women have with

commercial fishing: they face extraordinarily difficult working conditions

made more difficult and dangerous by male crews and skippers who don’t

welcome women, yet they feel impelled by the challenge of the work to

return to their jobs season after season.