Article Category: Personal Gear

Commercial Harvesters Weigh in on PFDs, Rain Gear, Boots

Commercial Harvesters Weigh in on PFDs, Rain Gear, Boots

Veteran Bristol Bay set netter Shannon Ford Ward still vividly recalls that day in the Naknek-Kvichak district of Bristol Bay 15 years ago when the boat she and husband Don Ward were sailing went down after hitting a set net line that wasn’t supposed to be there. The Mustang personal floatation devices, or PFDs, that they were wearing saved their lives, she said. “When our boat went down, nobody else on our beach was wearing PFDs,” she said.  “After our boat sinking, everybody started wearing them because we were able to give concrete examples of why you need to wear them.” The Ward family, which has fished Bristol Bay since 1933, operates as Two If By SeaFoods, offering a variety of wild Alaska salmon products online. The loss of two drift gillnetter crew who drowned during the 2024...
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Personal Gear for Fishermen: Braving the Elements in Style

Personal Gear for Fishermen: Braving the Elements in Style

By Karen Robes Meeks karen@maritimepublishing.com To wrangle catch in conditions that can sometimes be harsh, unpredictable and unwieldy, West Coast commercial fishers often turn to specialized brands for personal gear that must work as hard as they do to get the job done. Whether it’s rain gear or footwear, many companies are developing new models of gear or improving upon current versions to keep commercial fishers warm, comfortable and dry. Here is a look at the new personal gear these companies are bringing to the market. XTRATUF XTRATUF, founded in the 1950s and a member of the Rocky Brands family since 2021, has been outfitting commercial fishermen and women in Alaska for more than six decades. The company’s best known for its Legacy Boot product, known as the “Alaskan S...
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