used to have some friends that went up there in the summer to clean fish or work on the boats..how much money could someone make up there...just as a summer job.  there are no jobs where i live and it would also give me a good excuse to go there.

All depends on how the fishing season is going and also are you willing to work 20 hrs a day? but good season, and your a good worker$30,000 would about right assuming you work all summer till the season ends. Also you may want to think about working on a fire crew(wildland) I have made 50,000 one summer working on a HOTSHOT crew.

Clinth

fire is cool.


50 large. very cool.

In my previous career I came across tons of people who worked them.

They usually made around $25,000-30,000 in a summer.  Sometimes they got higher than that, sometimes lower.  Some of them worked some fishing boats too, but their take home varied much more.  Sometimes making a lot more, but one time a friend said he "picked the wrong boat" and he would have made more if he had stayed at home working a normal job.

If you like the fire route you may whant to talk to WSMac about his opinion of the Northstar fire crew.

Clinth

I lived up there for a while and knew some people who worked the fishing industry. Work on the boats is usually by shares, you get a percentage of the take based on experience, job, etc. If it's a bad season, you don't make much; good season, big bucks. Work is frantic and often dangerous. Alaska crab fishing is statistically the most dangerous job in the country.

Other seasonal jobs can pay well, but are hard and mind-numbing, like working in the fish canneries. Just check it all out first, including travel and living expenses. And penalties or bonuses if you leave early or stick it out for the season.

Skip it.  Those summers where guys make 30K are few and far between.  Same with working on boats.  THose seasons have been over for years.  They are mostly legends now.  The crab boats are VERY dangerous work environments, and I am not a cautious type.

I did it half a summer - damn it!  My hands are still screwed up from constant immersion in 25 degree salt water swinging 15 lb fish.

It was a miserable season in 1989(?), and working 6 hour shifts with some days off was the norm.  That happened to my brother on a floating processor a couple years later as well.

Also, be aware that most of the "job ads" are scams.  Washington state has been trying to crack down on the scammers for years, but since the scammers live out of state, there's not much the law enforcement / consumer protection types can do to them.

Don't "send money for information", don't drive/fly up without knowing exactly what's waiting for you.