Megan Corazza

"I’m a lifelong fisherman. My parents raised me on a fishing boat since I was 17 days old, commercial fishing for salmon and halibut.

When you’re raised like that you don’t really know any difference. I never had a summer on land except for in 1989 during the Valdez oil spill when I was 10 years old. Every other summer my family operated as a unit. Fishing is neat because it allows the family to stay together all year long, in the way my parents chose to do it. When we were little up until I was 7, my parents ran two different drifters in the Cook Inlet. I remember hanging out on the boat, putting out a set net and waiting, sitting across the table and calling the other crew members names to fill up the time.

When I was 8, my parents decided to buy into a more family-friendly fishery, so they bought into Prince William Sound seining. A majority of my fishing career as a kid was spent seining in PWS, which was crazy and cool. It was me, my brother and three crew members on a 48-foot boat, with 2-3 month seasons depending on how much you choose. By the time we were 11 or 12, I was running the skiff with my dad. He raised us fishing right alongside him. By the time I got my own permit it was very natural. I bought into the business when I was 20. I was in college at the time. There was still a big learning curve, but nothing like walking into fishing not knowing what’s going on."

—Megan Corazza, life-long Alaskan and Prince William Sound commercial fisherman

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