Commercial fisherman and photographer Corey Arnold documents the occupational hazards of crab fishing in Alaska’s Bering Sea, and explains why it’s totally worth it – so long as you don’t mind the smell.
Pete Whelan is a freelance writer who won’t be eating seafood for a while.
Originally published in The Big Issue #707, 15/3/2024
Next time you’re having a rough day at the office, remember that photographer and commercial fisherman Corey Arnold spends weeks at a time on a crabbing boat off the coast of Alaska in the icy Bering Sea. There, the aromas of rotting sea creatures and diesel fuel lingering on the biting north wind have become so ubiquitous, he no longer even notices them.
And the stench is the least of his worries. “In a huge storm we might be fishing through, there are moments where one freak wave just perfectly doubles up with another, comes pouring over the deck, and washes you all the way across the boat,” Arnold recalls. The chances of this happening to you on your next trip to the photocopier, one would hope, are reasonably low.
Arnold’s photobook Fish-Work: The Bering Sea captures the one-time Deadliest Catch star and his crew aboard their crabbing boat, the F/V Rollo, where they’re at the mercy of 12-metre waves, freezing conditions and sleepless nights in their quest for Alaskan king and snow crab. As crazy as it looks, Arnold reckons what’s captured in his photos ain’t even the half of it. “It’s hard because when I’m working as a fisherman, I’m not able to get my camera,” he says, referencing those frantic moments when it’s all hands on deck. “I would say the majority of my best pictures are just never taken.”
So what’s the shot that got away? It’s got to involve the crew’s near-miss with a 360-kilo crab pot during a storm. “We heard a pop and a yell and we all just scattered as this pot came falling from like 25 feet in the air,” he remembers of the time the boat’s crane malfunctioned. “Freak accidents happen, you know? There’s always close calls. A lot of moments where you’re like, ‘If I just happened to be standing over there, I’d be dead.’”
But the struggle against the unforgiving Bering Sea is just part of the story. Other pictures offer glimpses of kinship and levity among the crew. In one shot, five sailors recline playfully on a mountain of crabs. In another, a man in a BoJack-style horse mask poses with Kitty, Arnold’s seafaring ginger cat. “I wanted to show a little bit of a sense of humour, because we’re all just kind of going crazy stuck on this boat for months,” Arnold says. “There are these moments of extreme fatigue, and quiet moments as well.”
At this point, you may well be wondering why anybody would want this job. “I think there’s just a great mystery in fishing,” Arnold explains. “It’s being on the edge of the unknown and just dropping a line into nothingness, never knowing what’s going to strike on the other end.”
Photos: Corey Arnold
Pete Whelan 