FROM THE WATERS OF BRISTOL BAY

The Commercial Fishermen

Name: The Commercial Fishermen
Address: 180 North 200 East, Heber City, UT, 84032-1737, US
Telephone: 310-890-2414

A TRUE STORY OF IDENTICAL TWINS IN THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS PROFESSION

The boom and bust fishery of Bristol Bay. The family.

The fights. The faith. For more than four decades, identical twin brothers Marc and Malcolm Vance returned each summer to Bristol Bay, Alaska, part of a fishery defined as much by uncertainty as by tradition. They began at the bottom, learning the rhythms of the work and the people who depend on it. Over time, they became part of a system that demands precision, endurance, and a tolerance for risk that cannot be fully explained from shore.

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Between those worlds, he built businesses, raised a family, and lived a life split between structure and uncertainty, where timing was everything and nothing was guaranteed.

Marc Vance is a commercial fisherman, assistant director, entrepreneur and a big mountain skier shaped by risk, movement, and the pull of something just over the horizon.

For more than four decades, he fished Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most volatile salmon fisheries in the world, rising from cannery worker and deckhand to captain and permit holder alongside his identical twin brother, Malcolm.

A life shaped by risk, driven by instinct.

MEET THE AUTHOR

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Marc and Malcolm first boat, EPC 20

Circa 1983

LT-RT: Marc, Malcolm Jr., (12 y/o) Malcolm, and Austin (5 y/o). Circa 2004

Author Marc Vance

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Marc Vance doesn’t romanticize Bristol Bay; he tells it like it is. The risk. The chaos. The brotherhood. The hard-earned life behind one of the toughest fisheries in the world.