What is Pen Patrol like?

I was talking about Pen Patrol earlier and then had someone ask me what it was like. I thought I'd show some people at the job and hopefully that would explain things better than me rehashing some dreck about building hours toward a commercial divers' card or our hookah rig. Every boat has their own method - fish farming is a pretty new business. Some guys go full-on SCUBA, like this joker to the left [by the way, this guy's an idiot...you can tell just by the smile]. But other people will do snorkeling, hookah and even free-diving.


A lot of it depends on the kind of fish you're growing, too - if you're on D-ring with us, you're growing larger fish like tuna. Inside the rings, you're growing smaller stuff that you might be able to take care of without getting into the water if your arms are long enough. Dad farms tuna fish - big suckers that could grow six or seven feet if we tried to keep them long enough. In that case you're out in the ocean and you're dealing with the fish, any trash that might make them sick and predator fish that might try to attack your nets to get at them.
My first summer out - Dad signed me up for some SCUBA safety course that they held in the shadow of our tender ship, the Phoenix. They snapped a picture of all of us - I'm all the way in the back with my hands in the air like a dork. We don't use SCUBA tanks, we use a hookah rig instead. It's pretty simple and a lot cheaper - otherwise we'd be refilling our air tanks every day or two and that gets cost-prohibitive.

Since Pen Patrol is different for every boat - my only recommendation is 'try it yourself' when you're out here. Take the safety courses and go with a pro the first few times. If it's cold out there in the water the first few times, just do what I do - pee in your suit.