Predator Turns Prey - And Playtoy
This is about Sam (not his real name), a 29-year-old freelance diver in southeast Alaska. Sam didn't want me to take his photo because of personal reasons, and I respect that. Sam doesn't have his own boat, but he makes good enough money to pay a skipper to take him out diving for Abalone, Urchins, Sea Cucumber and other sea-critters, and then he sells them to local fish processors. When he goes out, sometimes he's out a few days, and other times he has to stay away from home for up to a month, if the pickings and pay is good enough.
He has two kids and they spend a lot of time with a dependable babysitter. It's for them that he rents an apartment, otherwise he'd just stay in motels or with friends, and traveling around to find his pots of gold, he's made friends all over the southeast. Somehow, this is one Alaska man that isn't waiting for winter to get over; he works year-round.
When he's under the water it's a whole different world, Sam tells me, and then at night it's different again. He's only been underwater a few times at night here ~ he says it's too scary for comfort. Once, he was offshore just south of Thomas Basin at night and the sharks seemed to come out of nowhere. They have huge green-glowing eyes that look like they belong to a monster, and he sees the eyes in his lights before he knows what creature they belong to. A large school of foot-long fish literally engulfed him as they zipped by. He didn't see them coming, and suddenly he was surrounded by streaks of moving silver flashing light everywhere. He didn't know what they were or what they were doing, since schools of fish usually avoid a diver. Their swift flashing movement all around him made him feel as if he were being swept away, and he found that a little eerie. Then, as suddenly as they began streaking around him, they disappeared in the darkness.
The sea-life in the daytime isn't scarce, either. When Sam dives, he carries a big mesh bag that he uses to collect whatever he's diving for, and seals and sea lions know what he's doing. He learned to tie his bag to his belt after setting it down to use both hands, and when he returned to it, his bag was gone, along with all he'd collected that dive. He hadn't seen the thief, but he had suspicions.
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