we haven't done much fishing so far this season.  we've been plagued by consistently bad weather, the worst weather anyone can remember out here.  it began with the typhoon on the second day of december that destroyed many people's homes and essentially stranded thousands more with road closures and power outages.  while i feel fortunate to come out of the ordeal unscathed, the cost of this event to us fishermen is huge.  once the seas calmed down and the businesses got back up and running we were able to go fishing, but we could only locate a fraction of our pots.  the wave surge was so severe that a lot of our gear was simply carried off somewhere at mother nature's whim.  i was told that the weather buoy measured a swell of 72 feet before it got wiped out and ceased transmitting.  we've since gotten calls from fishermen as far as thirty miles away reporting the discovery of some of our pots.  unbelievable.  and the worst part is that the crabs were there.  when we pulled the pots that we did manage to find, they were all stuffed with crabs, forty, fifty, and sixty pounds to the pot.  unfortunately, by this time they were mostly dead, just a disgusting waste.  although you can't really say that you "lost" something that you never actually had, i figure that little blow cost me, conservatively, 10K.  and i'm the lowest man on the totem pole.  on top of the opportunity cost is the real cost to the owner in the form of all the lost pots, line, and buoys, hundreds of thousands of dollars all together.  it can be maddening for the most important variable in the industry to be completely beyond our control, but that's the chance we take when we make the choice to be fishermen.  the debate rages as to whether or not we should receive government subsidies. personally i'm opposed to that idea, and i don't think agriculture or other industries should get the big bail out either.  anyway, things have only marginally improved since then.  it's frustrating because on the days that we are able to go fishing we actually do quite well, those days are just too far in between.  and even moderate success causes a whole new set of concerns for some captains.  the mate on the boat next to mine is called Butterbean because he looks like the mini-me version of that big, bald boxer.  well as long as Butterbean was broke he was the best mate on the planet.  but as soon as he got his fat fingers on a few whiskey coupons he went underground and his skipper's been grumbling about him every morning since.  i've known some skippers who intentionally kept their crew broke until the end of the season to ensure that they didn't disappear.  and i've known a crewman that got fed-up with the practice and came one night and burned the boat to the waterline.  it's a sad but true commentary on some of the characters in the industry and i think the often outlandish circumstances of this business is what ignites many people's profound curiosity.