"Commercial fishing is a lifestyle -- I've farmed and also raised cattle, but there's just nothing else like trolling for albacore. It's what I do," fisherman Jeremiah said while hanging on tight to his wife Trudi aboard their fishing vessel Aguero.

The albacore fleet had been driven into Ilwaco harbor to escape bad weather, so Trudi jumped at the chance to drive from California to Oregon for a rare visit with Jeremiah. The couple have shared only five days together this summer -- all on different days in different places -- and now face the prospect of being apart again until October.

"I was forced off the boat three years ago due to a neck injury," Trudi wistfully explained. "Getting off the boat was the hardest thing I've ever done, although now I'm going to school to be a court reporter. Two years down, two years to go!"

On the night of our interview Jeremiah and Trudi hosted a party on their back deck, serving up piles of shark, elk meat, baked beans, corn on the cob, garlic bread and more to a dozen fishermen and visitors. "There's a lot of really great people in the industry," Jeremiah said as his guests wolfed down the goodies. "It's great to see them year after year working the waters from Mexico to Canada. The albacore are in tight to the coast this season so there's more opportunities than usual to come in to port like this." Jeremiah, who spends about nine months at sea each year, also has two sons from a previous marriage -- one is a police officer, the other is a financial advisor -- as well as one grandchild and another on the way.

Cut up albacore into one inch chunks, wrap each piece with bacon and skewer them on a stick. Barbeque the kabobs; when the bacon is almost done, brush on Chinese sweet and sour sauce. "It's one of those recipes where you'll be a hero, everyone will think you're quite the chef," Jeremiah says. "When the bacon's done everything's done, it's a very simple recipe."