Without the buddy-up, Mr. Kamp, I wouldn't be here today as a fisherman. When I started fishing with my father, he could share the catch with me because two of us could catch more than one. But with an IQ on crab, a crew member was an unknown species...in my fleet of less than 40 feet.
Everyone I know--I think Earle can vouch for this--in order to land at least in 3K, are buddied-up two, sometimes three. We simply would not be here today; the 15 years of the crab we had would be no good to us if we didn't have that.
I fished with my friend who is 64 years old, and he fished with his friend who is 62. That's the only way we can squeeze enough dollars out of that bit of crab to barely survive. So we've got to keep the buddy-up. I don't think it's really an issue in our fleet. We should probably look at applying it to other species, more than we are today.