i see by the search there are a lot of recomendations to work the alaska cannerys. but not one of them mention the beach gang. there were 8 of us in the entire state. one day we were all trying to describe our job discription. we came up with this. "anything any one did not want to do." that was the job. i bought the fish, i sorted the fish, i proscessed the fish, i shiped the fish off. i repaired the equipment, i repaired the cannery, i cleaned the cannery. i built new sections to the cannery. i operated the heavey equipment, i was firemarshal,i was the hassordious waste officer, iwere the ones who took the bear rifles away from the fisherman in a picket line, we fixed the fishermens vessels, we were in charge of 400 cannery workers work-and we worked them to exsastion all the time, when some one got fired we took over there position till a replacement was sent up from washington, we argued with fishermen-arcatechs-cannery workers-OSHA-and more, we did all that and after that was done then the dirty job part started. we removed glaceral silt so the fishing vessels had more birth space, we choped the winter ice out, we built recreational spaces for some workers, we built roads, we built tent citys for other workers, and still for other workers we built habatats through the perma frost. we stood in neck high tanks of fish gury pitching the fish out, we made the ice for the tanks we were just in, when a slime line broke and millions of tons of fish guts became lodged underneath the cannery - well we cleaned that out, when the fishermans barracks plumbing froze up and there was tons of human extrement underneath that houseing we were underneath there cleaning that out, we were the keepers of the cannery secrets, i studied biological chemical engenering in collage in montana and to this day i saw molds underneath that cannery and some funguss i still can not identifie, i was interested in the average hours i worked through out the seasion, my figures were 110 hours a week - we never slept. fact is we were payed extra for not sleeping. i remember that time was tripile time on the pay. some times in the neaborhood of 500 bucks a day was our pay. but most of the time it was a non-respectfull 150 bucks a day. that was back in the late 80's i can not tell ya what the pay is now but i can tell you this, there is only one person still alive that knows every thing about the wards cove packing plant. and he is me. in early april i found dead bodys that froze to a tree over the winter. glad i headed to montana during the winter time. i am offten asked what is a beachgang? now i always say what we came up with. anything anyone did not want to do. how do you apply for the job? YOU DON"T!!! the job is given to you when you prove your worth. it would be an adventure for you to look into this mike. but i might say, i am not sure your phisical capable of the job. i weight 200 pounds with a 29 inch waste at 5'11". i was built like a damn greek adantus, and i was the little guy. we made inovation in the industry, and we were allways the unknown heros. one inovation i like is my conception that women can out work the men in a cannary. collage was shoing me the elements of power v's stamina, a woman can out last a man in a slime line, there for after bring my findings to the plant supervisor the next year we moved from 60% men to 20% men and production went up by 25%. we were the brains, the brawn, and the fearless of the opperation. are you interested mike?