The face of the waters: a season in Alaska's fisheries

Rosemary Desideria McGuire
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:46:01 PDT

The Face of the Waters is the memoir of a spring and summer in Alaska's fishing industry. In March 2000, I found work as a deckhand in Cook Inlet. For the next five months I traveled from fishery to fishery, working on boats throughout coastal Alaska. Alaska's fisheries are deeply bound up with its identity as a state, supporting an independent, romantic way of life rare in the world today. Yet the existence of these fisheries is threatened by problems ranging from global warming to currency exchange rates. I have drawn on the record in my journal, interviews with fishermen, essays and archival material to chronicle an industry and a way of life beset by change. On a deeper level, The Face of the Waters uses the context of my adventures to explore the nature of personal fate, love, and the importance of place.