For dive harvesters, the most important man is on deck

摘要

It's autumn in Southeast Alaska. Actually we should call it "blow season." You go to bed and the leaves are on the trees. When you wake up, the leaves have been blown off. Autumn also is the beginning of dive harvest season. This is the time of year that divers jump out of perfectly fine vessels to pick up sea cucumbers off the bottom of the ocean or blast geoduck clams out of the sand 30 feet underwater. By no means is this a job for the weak! Diving two and a half days a week takes a toll on the body, and sometimes irreversible damage can occur. We all know divers who have pushed the safe dive "envelope" to the point that even they don't know how they dodged the "bubble."