Lakewood Lore

From mountains to oceans, local grad has done it all

While many Lakewood alumnae have gone on from school to scale the ladder of success, few have realized, in the process, more rarefied heights of adventure than Janet M. Wall.

Janet, 47, graduated from Lakewood High in 1965 to become a marine biologist and one of the first two women to serve as an American government observer on a Japanese vessel in the Bering Sea.

Today, she is an assistant task leader, second in charge of a U.S. program operating out of Seattle that dispatches more than 600 observers to sea each year to monitor the activities of foreign fleets fishing within 200 miles of our northwestern coastline.

"It took a lot of convincing by U.S. authorities to get the consent of the Japanese to accept me," she said. "Like most seafarers, the Japanese captains thought it was bad luck to have a woman aboard. They held a kind of lottery among themselves, with the loser being forced to take me."

Janet vividly recalls boarding her first foreign ship in 1978 in the outer bay of Dutch Harbor, a lonely Aleutian Island town off the coast of Alaska.

"The vessel was the Koya Maru, a 3,000-ton, 335-foot-long trawler, which dwarfed the 20-foot motorboat that took me out to meet it," she related.

"To reach the deck, I had to climb a long, dangling Jacob's ladder (rope with wooden steps). Then, at the top, I was greeted by 87 grinning crew members (all male Japanese) leaning over the rail. I would have to stay with them for a month as the only woman aboard.

"Some of the ship's officers spoke a little English, and I learned a little Japanese. But, most of all, I had to rely on pantomime to communicate."

By and large, however, Janet was treated with respect. Only once did a crewman try to kiss her. The cook would prepare her meals, which were mostly fish, to look more attractive than those served to the men.

She had to steep herself in a totally different culture and, eventually, even got to like raw squid.

She marveled at the quantity of fish caught. Working 'round the clock, the Koya Maru world haul in four to five nets full every day, each weighing about 80 tons.

It was Janet's job to see that the ship did not exceed its quota. She had to estimate the catches and gather information on size and age of the targeted fish which, in this case, were wall-eyed pollock belonging to the cod family.

She also had to determine the incidence of halibut, crab and salmon, which were unlawful to keep and had to be thrown back in, dead or alive, as soon as possible.

Early morning hauls world mean being out on deck at 5:30 a.m. in oilskin rain gear, boots and hard hat, watching as the trawl net was dragged up the stern ramp and the fish removed to the ship's processing factory.

The factory made "surimi," a type of fish paste used widely as a filler in Japanese dishes.

Three times a day she conducted watches from the ship's bridge for marine mammals, such as seals and seal lions. If they were accidentally caught and drowned by the nets, she was required to measure them and record sex and age.

Janet was born on Edgewater Drive in Lakewood.

"As a child, I was a tomboy," she admitted. "I didn't like dolls and I climbed trees. When I got my job, I used to become seasick, but was able to conqueror it."

After high school, Janet earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the College of Wooster, and later a master's degree from the College of Fisheries at the University of Washington.

Her interest in marine biology was sparked by reading "The Sea Around Us," a notable book by Rachel Carson, who early on made everyone aware of the perishability of our environment.

But Janet developed hobby interests, too. She has traveled around the world, mountain climbing, back packing and scuba diving. In Africa, she crossed the Sahara, scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, hunted with the Ituri Forest Pygmies, and rafted on the Zambesi River.

She was in Cape Town on Feb. 11, 1990, the day Nelson Mandels was freed from prison after more than 27 years behind bars, and she heard, from atop the city's Table Maountain, the tumultuous roar of the crowds below.

She twice climbed Mts. Rainier and St. Helens, hiked in the Ecuadorian rainforest and, in 1971 was caught in the war between Pakistan and India.

Janet is a widow. She met her husband while mountain climbing. They were married in 1973 and, two years later, he died of a brain tumor.

Her mother, Ruth Morgan of Rocky River, is a native of Lakewood who was born Ruth Baier on Grace Avenue in 1914. Like her daughter, she is a Lakewood High graduate.

She went on to become a teacher at Taft and Roosevelt Elementary schools here.

Janet's brother Harry, a refrigeration engineer, also attended Lakewood High. Their father, Paul Morgan, a chemist who helped develop synthetic rubber during World War II, died in 1988 at age 85.

Our adventurous subject, who now lives in Seattle, expects in time to leave the fishermen to pursue some other type of environmental work, perhaps in ecosystems or in the field of endangered species.

Going to Antarctica also is one of her cherished goals.

At a recent homecoming here, Janet and her mother were guests at the Lakewood home of Alton Yarian, a retired teacher. Yarian taught Janet geology and astronomy in high school and, over the years, has followed his former pupil's unusual career and venturesome avocations.

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post June 16, 1994. Reprinted with permission.

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