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My job was Gaff Man. I would stand at the edge of the boat and I would watch the fishing line come in. I would take this big hook called the gaff hook, reach over the side of the boat, hook the fish in the side of the head and then proceed to pull the fish onto the boat. The hook would get ripped out and as the hook gets ripped out I'd be sitting there with this big fish. The Halibut would be flopping violently in front of me, so I'd grab a club and I'd beat the fish in the head because we wanted to stop it from flopping.

Next, I would grab a knife and cut its gills. By the time I cut its gills there was another fish. I would drop the knife, grab my hook, hook another fish in the head, beat it, cut it, push it out of the way. Except… very often you would get a lot of fish in a row, so you would gaff one fish, and then another fish, and another fish, and another… and another fish. Pretty soon you would have five or six fish between fifteen and two hundred pounds flopping violently in front of you on the fish table.

Grab your club, beat all the fish in the head. Then grab your knife…or I should say you look for your knife. The reason you can not find it is because there is a three inch pool of blood and Halibut scum that is hiding your knife. Search through the blood until you find the knife… I found the knife… cut it's gills, push it aside… just keep going, just keep going… and so on.

This continues for 21 hours straight.

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