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

by Leslie Leyland Fields

  "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 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.
 

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

When you see her, Leslie may be wearing a silk dress and fishnets or wearing Xtra-Tuff boots and mending fishing nets, depending on whether she’s at her fishcamp in the Alaska wilderness or on a speaking tour “Outside.” She’s happy in both places talking about the books, places and topics that move her most.

She's the multi-award winning author of 12 books, with her 12th forthcoming in April, 2020. (Your Story Matters) Her list includes Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt and the Seas; Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers; The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God (Cascade), Surviving the Island of Grace: A Life on the Wild Edge of America (Thomas Dunne), and Parenting is Your Highest Calling . . . and Eight Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt (Waterbrook), and five others. Her essays have won a number of awards and have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Christianity Today, Beliefnet, Books and Culture, Orion, etc. She takes on garbage, a theology of the body, culture-making, motherhood, narrative theology and points between and beyond. Her essays have won Pushcart nominations, the William Wilberforce Award and the Virginia Faulkner Award.

“As much as I love words on the page, I’m not fully satisfied until I get to speak them in person with others,” Leslie adds. She says she’s honored to travel and share from her passions nationally and internationally at conferences, universities, churches and retreats. With three master’s degrees, she has taught collegiate and undergraduate classes for many years, including six years in Seattle Pacific University’s MFA program. If she can’t see her audience, radio is a good second. She has appeared on more than 150 radio shows including Family Life Today, Prime Time America, Keepin' the Faith, Chris Fabry Live!

Leslie blogs at www.leslieleylandfields.com about life in her house, in the wild and on the road. She lives in Kodiak, Alaska with her husband and two teens. In the summer, her four older children return to their fishcamp island where cell phones don’t work, and where they all happily (sometimes) work together in commercial salmon fishing. You can reach her at leslieleylandfields@gmail.com

Reviews

[Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento]

I originally bought the book because I wrote my own set of essays this summer after commercial fishing for the first time. I found the stories fascinating, moving, and enlightening. They make me proud to do be a fisherwoman, provided me with extra angles and views of the industry that I was glad to be privy to, and inspired me to be the most badass, capable woman I could be. I think that the book will have that effect on any woman, regardless of occupation or age.

[bermudianabroad]

A gem of a book; poetic at times, surprising, and a poignant snapshot of life in the Alaskan fishing industry. The stories are more about experiences than a detailed account of the what and hows of fishing, the technical side of things. But frankly, all that is less compelling than the personal stories. What struck me was the optimism, the gung ho attitude. Perhaps not so surprising given the nature of the work, but there's a universal sense of humour and fun and adventure that underpins each of the accounts.

Given this book was written in 1997, and with many of women's accounts/experiences taking place in the 70s and 80s, I wonder how else the industry has changed. It would be interesting to delve into their views on the environmental impact of commercial fishing, changes in proceedure/worldwide demand, changes in the culture.

[Diane]

Fisher women are serious about adventure. This book tells the real stories of courageous women.
Fields is not only a great writer, but a fisher woman herself.