It's still a man's world out there in the raucous Bristol Bay salmon fishery. But among the roughly 1,800 vessels jockeying for position, Southeast Alaska Capt. Lindsey Bloom holds her own aboard the 32-foot drift boat Erika Leigh.

Fishing vessel Erika Leigh Capt. Lindsey Bloom sits among her crew after a successful day of fishing. Bloom is one of only a few known female captains that fish the rough waters of Bristol Bay. Photo Courtesy of Lindsey Bloom

"I really feel like fishing chose me," she said. "There wasn't much choice when my dad called and said, 'You're coming up to be permit holder on the Erika Leigh.'"

That was the summer, over a dozen years ago, when her brother decided not to fish. Bloom was told she was going to Bristol Bay to hold the family's limited entry permit for the drift vessel.

"When she started running the Erika Leigh, we actually had to move the steering wheel on the flying bridge lower so that she could physically do it," said Art Bloom, who recruited his daughter as crew when she was just 16 years old. "To me, it doesn't matter whether she's a man or a woman. I'm happy for her. I have a strong personal believe in working for yourself."

His daughter agrees. Being one of less than a dozen women captains in the Bristol Bay fleet has its advantages and disadvantages, she said.

"You stand out because it's not the norm. I feel 99 percent of the time I've been treated really well. You get noticed, but when you screw up, it's like 'Oh, she's a woman.'"

For more than a dozen years now, the younger Bloom has fished Bristol Bay, first aboard her dad's boat, the Cape Clear, then as crew for friend Johnny Gill. Now she's working aboard her dad's other drift boat, the Erika Leigh, with a crew of two or three.

"I knew I wanted to rise to the challenge of running the boat myself," she said. "I felt like a lot of people - peers, family, other fishermen - felt that I couldn't do it, that women couldn't do it, so I needed to overcome that fear."

Between stints in the harsh salmon fishery, she also earned a degree in sociology at Whitman College, in Walla Walla, Wash., and a master's degree in service, leadership and management at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt. For the latter degree, she wrote a thesis on conservation and fair trade marketing for Bristol Bay salmon.

She is now the commercial fisheries liaison and outreach coordinator for Trout Unlimited Alaska, an at-large board member of United Fishermen of Alaska and a member of the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association. She also has done contract consulting in commercial fishing, conservation, community watershed management, marketed some of her own fish and she teaches yoga.

"She is one of the rising young leaders in Alaska fishing," said Mark Vinsel, executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska. "She has worked well within UFA and she is a real contributor in coming up with ideas and representing Bristol Bay fishermen and working to promote a lot of different relationships with people we work with. She definitely took a step in running for the UFA board two years ago. She is a good example for the next generation of fishermen who have to be involved in the different public processes to protect public resources."

"I think of myself as a hybrid fisherman," Bloom said. "First and foremost I catch fish to eat them, then commercial, then sport. I'm starting to think fly fishing is pretty fun, pretty Zen, like yoga."

From 1989 to 1995, her parents owned a fly fishing lodge in southern Chile.

She went commercial gillnetting as a summer job for the first time in Southeast Alaska, and after that went on to Bristol Bay, where her family has two permits.

A native of Juneau, she has also worked with Trout Unlimited on the debate over development of the Pebble Mine project in Southwest Alaska, arguing that protection is needed in the Bristol Bay fishery.

Bloom said she has not actively pursue a leadership role within the fisheries industry, but was prompted by frustration over the low price paid to fishermen, and her passion for the Bristol Bay fishery.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska

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