I have written on the digital pages of this journal about the places I have visited, the science that we are doing, the fauna we have encountered, and even the astronomical wonders we have been lucky to observe. There is a topic I have not touched, because of my limitations and not my interests, and yet that is one of the most important things I have encountered on this expedition: the human factor.
This trip has provided the opportunity to meet many different types of people. I am not a sociologist, and I am too afraid to embark on writing about individuals, but I will make an exception today for one of my fellow travelers. Meet Anthony D'Aoust, the electronics technician aboard the Palmer.
Hard to miss Tony in Christchurch, as he traveled around with 'Big Big'.
It was hard not to notice Tony among the two to three hundred people that were being geared up in Christchurch to travel to McMurdo Station, as he moved around carrying the oversized stuffed shark named 'Big Big' that belongs to one of his kids.
Tony is the kind of guy that teachers would like to ignore and not make too much noise about. We do not want to celebrate the successes of accomplished high school dropouts in fear that our students would decide to follow them without the right tools to succeed in life. I had decided to write about Tony before he sent me through e-mail an article about him that had been published on 'The Antarctic Sun', a newsletter of the United States Antarctic Program. I guess I was not the first one to think on writing about Tony. I learned through the article that he had dropped out of high school a long time ago. I was not going to take that historical fact against him.
I wanted to write about him when I saw a photographic album that was laying around in which he is seen in Alaskan waters aboard his commercial fishing boat, the FV Antoine, with his two crew members Aghileen D'Aoust, 8 years old and Cassiar Beaver, 10 (they were 7 and 9 on the pictures). Perhaps it is my longing for my own kids and wife that connected me to those pictures. As a person that likes to take pictures, I very well know that we can color the stories we tell by the way we point the lens, but there is no scam on that photo album; the pictures are genuine. The joy of two kids being out there in the wild fishing with dad beats any summer camp you can imagine.
Cassiar Beaver (9 on the picture) and Aghileen D'Aoust (8 on the picture) examining the catch.
Tony fishes salmon out of Wrangler, Alaska during the summer, and works as the electronics technician aboard the Palmer during the other summer. His pictures portray a fascinating way of life I had not see. There are other families in which mom, dad, teenagers and kids fish together from their own vessels.
Tony with his kids an another fishing family in Alaska
A couple of boats that gathered at sunset around a campfire on wild cove.
A couple of boats gathered arund a campfire
Kids play together and have sleepovers like other kids do; it just happens that they go to another boat for the sleepover. They also help with navigation, the nets, packing of the salmon and cooking.
Kids of fishing families play together like any other kid
Today he shared with all aboard his passion for fishing during a Saturday talk. I was surprised to hear how well Alaska manages its fisheries in a sustainable way. It is refreshing to hear about communities invested on using resources in a way that guarantees they will still be there for future generations when all I hear on the news is about overfished fisheries in other parts of the world. Tony mentioned that there is as much peer pressure from fellow fishermen as from enforcement in the area where he fishes. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game decides when and what it is alright to fish according to continuous censing of the fish populations.
Back here in Antarctica, Tony fits well with the Raytheon crew of the Palmer: always ready to help and with a big smile. In the five weeks that I have been aboard have never felt that I am bothering any of the crew when asking for a favor. They all seem to have a lot of fun in their jobs, which you have to, if you want to be sane spending that much time at sea.
I encourage my students to finish high school and continue to college. Statistics show that, on average, people with more education get better paid jobs. Personal success should not be measured by monetary fortune (I would not be a teacher if that were the case), but a stable income does help us achieve our dreams. Next time I see a student leaving high school with no diploma, despite all my efforts to convince him or her to stay, I will think of Tony and his two kids fishing away.
Tony with Cassiar on a fine fishing day
All of the amazing people with whom I have shared this home in the past five weeks have rich and unique stories to tell. I wish I had the skill to write about them all. After all, we are all in the same boat.