Story and photos by Holly Hughes from the 1983 National Fishermen Yearbook

To the general public, the image of the fisherman's wife is commonly that of a lone figure gazing out to sea, waiting on the quay for her husband's return. Throughout history, the life of the fisherman's wife, like that of the fisherman himself, has often been romanticized.

Tradition dictated that she tends the home fires while her husband wrestled a living from the cruel sea. She had a clearly defined role of supporting her husband on shore, whether that meant raising the children, planting the potatoes or peddling the catch.

Just as most fishermen no longer put out to sea in open dories, the image and role of the fisherman's spouse is changing. Today she may be a partner in her husband's operation, either by handling the business onshore or going to sea with him. She may be active in lobbying for fisheries legislation or in setting up markets for his fish. She may be volunteering in the community or pursuing a career of her own.

While the fishing industry remains one of the last strongholds of tradition including the tradition that fishing is a male occupation, women's participation in the fishing community is nevertheless broadening. The change can be attributed in part to the general evolution in the social climate brought about by the women's movement.

However, changes in the fisheries themselves are also factors - from shorter seasons to more advanced (and less brawn intensive) fishing technology. Although the most dramatic change may be in women's entrance into fishing itself, evidence of a new era can also be seen in the many variations on the theme of being a fisherman's wife today. Many women still choose the traditional role, but others are working as partners with their husbands or using the free time to pursue their own careers. For better or worse, fishermen's wives now have much greater freedom to determine their own roles than did their romanticized predecessors.

Women's responsibilities in the fishing industry are changing in ports across the country. However, the change seems to be the most dramatic in the Northwest. Marc Miller, anthropologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, is researching the changing involvement of women in the industry.
"Women in the Northwest are much more visible as a whole than as they are in, say, the Northeast," says Miller.

"They are involved in harvesting, processing, management and politics. They are even heading up fishermen's organizations.

And among the fishermen's wives, there is a much greater diversity in participation than in other parts of the country."

Freedom and Frustrations

Even though the wife of a fisherman may have more options open to her today, she is nonetheless dealing with the mixed bag of freedom and frustrations that go with the territory. On one hand, she may have more free time, but no husband around with whom to share it. She may have the freedom to pursue a career, but have to accept that it may mean less time with her husband when he returns. She may have financial security, but feel uncomfortable socializing without her husband.

In fact, it is likely that for every woman Wao enjoys the fact that her husband is so totally consumed by his career, there is another woman who may resent that total preoccupation and feel that, "He's married to the boat instead of to me."

Being married to a fisherman can mean having “six honeymoons a year,” as one woman puts it. However, the short, intense periods of time together can also wreak havoc on the relationship. The final irony may be that once she learns to be independent and live without him, he’s back home again and wants to be in charge. 

Even though the women interviewed for this story lead quite dissimilar lives, they share many of the same ideas about how to deal with their husbands’ absences. Regardless of what she does in her own, she is still expected to run the home front single-handedly, including coping with kids with measles, broken pipes, leaky roofs, bill collectors, and family emergencies. 

Many of the women find raising the children alone the most difficult part. Minnie Malich of Gig Harbor, Wash., recalls having her first baby when her husband was at sea. "I cried and cried," she says. "I was only 19 at the time - that was the hardest part." Berit Sjong, who is active in local politics in Seattle, says it was hardest when her kids were sick or when major decisions had to be made without her husband.

While the husband's absence may have required an adjustment, many women mention that it is also difficult to adjust to his return. As Linnea Jangaard, who's married to a halibut fisherman, says, "When they come home from a long trip they are like a guest in the house. They can't become a father just like that. It's hard even to communicate at first."

Linn Pirak, who grew up set-net fishing in Kodiak, Alaska, explains the transition, "You get used to doing things a certain way while they are gone. When they suddenly come home, it's all different. Sometimes they're not sure where they fit in and that's difficult. I know my husband likes me to be independent, but he wants to feel important with the family, too."

While the risks and adventure may draw men into commercial fishing, the women have to learn to live with the knowledge that it is one of the most dangerous occupations. Sometimes fishermen don't make it back to port. The degree of danger varies from fishery to fishery, though crab fishing in the Bering Sea is considered one of the more dangerous.

Linn Pirak's husband has fished crab, and she says that at times it has been difficult not to worry about him. "He's in a high-risk business. Sometimes when I say goodbye to him, I'm not sure if I'll ever see him again. I mean, you try not to think about it, but the thought still crosses your mind." She says she wards off her worry by getting involved with fishing - listening to weather reports, talking to other wives and trying to stay in radio contact.

Others, like Berit Sjong, say they don't stay in radio contact because they think it would make them worry more. Most of the women, however, report that they can put the worries out of their minds because they trust their husbands' judgment. Or, as Linnea Jangaard puts it, "You get philosophical about it. You figure that if you don't hear anything he must be OK."

Despite these trials, the women say they feel that once one becomes used to it, separation has its positive side. Berit Sjong says, "I like having some time to myself and I think my husband feels the same way about going to sea and having some time alone. I have time to do things I wouldn't do otherwise."
Tracy Bronson, whose husband is often away for months at a time, reports she and her husband sometimes joke that if they were around each other all the time, maybe they wouldn't be married. "It's nice to know I can be independent when he's gone," she declares. "I know I can get along if anything happens to him. I know I can make it on my own."

Pursuing Interests

Other women say that while they may not have felt free to have their own careers, they enjoy the chance to explore other interests and, particularly in small towns, to be with family and friends.

 
Minnie Malich remembers her first years of marriage in Gig Harbor. “The men would be on all season. They wouldn’t come home like they do now. The women would pick berries in the summertime, and the season would go by. We’d all get together every afternoon at 3:00 for coffee. I was never lonely or bored. But this is a small town, and everyone knows one another. I think it’s easier in a community where so many are involved in the same industry.” It is a paradox that as more people are drawn into fishing from outside the traditional family and ethnic communities, the network of support that sustained women in the past may be eroding. Fishermen's wives who live in large cities now often do not have the emotional support from family or other women in the same position.

Before mourning the passing of the "good old days," however, it is wise to consider that such communities may have been as restrictive as they were supportive.

This would particularly be the case if a woman wished to deviate from what was accepted and pursue her own interests. It is ironic that the well-intentioned network of support may have actually pressured women into hiding their feelings. As one woman points out, at times she feels pressure from others in the fishing community to be stoic and not complain. While women have only recently gone to sea with their husbands, some women have long been acting as a land-based partner.

Peggy Dyson began broadcasting the weather for her husband in Kodiak years ago. Now she is working for the National Weather Service, and the whole fleet relies on her daily weather reports.
Other onshore partners have been responsible for researching and setting up markets, negotiating prices, contacting processors and keeping track of the many changes in fisheries regulations. In Coos Bay, Ore., Nancy Eickhoff performs such a role.

After trolling for several seasons and monitoring the regulation changes for her husband's various fisheries, she was asked to be general manager of the now defunct (but once powerful) All Coast Fishermen's Marketing Association. According to Eickhoff, the increasing number of regulations is forcing wives to take a stronger role in fishing. "Monitoring the changes in regulations has become a full-time job on shore," she says. "I do it because my husband is at sea and I'm here." For many years, the obvious place for wives to participate in their husbands' work was through the many fishermen's wives’ associations. In the Northwest, such groups have been instrumental in lobbying for fisheries legislation. They have also published recipe books and offered seafood-cooking demonstrations to promote consumer interest. 

The Pacific Coast Fishermen's Wives Coalition is presently involved in a project to push seafood at supermarkets by working with the stores on attractive displays and providing information on seafood handling for the consumer.

Available Literature

Even though fisheries vary greatly from region to region, many of the feelings expressed by fishermen's wives in the Northwest are likely to be echoed elsewhere. Fran Danowski, an anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island, was intrigued with the role wives play in a fishing community and studied a group of fishermen's wives in the fishing town of Galilee, R.1. Her findings were published in 1980 by the University of Rhode Island/Sea Grant in a book called "Fishermen's Wives: Coping with an Extraordinary Occupation," which is available for $2 by writing to the University of Rhode Island, Marine Advisory Service, Publications Unit, Narragansett, R.I. 02882. 

Many of the observations and feelings expressed by these wives of fishermen are similar to those of the women in the Northwest. Here are some of their comments from the book:

• "Last winter he was gone so much that when he came home he was like company. I felt like an outsider had come home and taken over."
• "It is very difficult and hard on a marriage until you adjust to it. You have to learn to have separate lives. This was never my idea of what a good marriage would be like, but still we have a good one."
• "There is a lot of stress in being married to a fisherman. You have to be made for this kind of life. You’ve got to be able to be independent.”
• “I like everything about it, from the free fish to free time in the winter.”
• "Husbands and wives appreciate each other more and don't take each other for granted."

Michael Orbach's "Hunter, Seamen and Entrepreneurs: The Tuna Seinermen of San Diego" touches on the role of fishermen's wives in San Diego's tuna seine fishery.

According to Orbach, "The wives in the fleet felt that after the initial week or so in port, the husband starts getting in the way. Both husbands and wives frequently remarked that 'It's nice to have him home (be home) again, but it's good to have him gone (be gone) again too.' Each had become accustomed to a life which of necessity operated smoothly in the other's absence." Orbach also points out that "It is hard to maintain a stable, continuing relationship between any two individuals — especially an intimate relationship such as that between man and wife — on the basis of three or four months a year."

For all the women who love the life, there are those who are never comfortable with it. It is accepted that the divorce rate is high in fishing communities and that many women are not suited to the life. As one woman puts it, "There is an art to being a fisherman's wife that some people never learn.”