Ryan Rogers of Fisherman's Market

Eugene native and South High grad Ryan Rogers began working summers in Alaska as a break from studying economics at the UO. "I dropped out winter term of my senior year," he says. "I didn't want to end up on the 40th floor in San Francisco or Seattle." Instead, he bought a boat to fish for salmon in Prince William Sound. A year later, the Exxon Valdez hit the rocks. "I was the fourth boat hired to help clean up the spill," he says. "It paid off the boat and enabled me to survive." Looking for an alternative to year-round fishing at age 35, Rogers joined with old friend Mike West in 1997 to purchase the Fisherman's Market, until then an outlet for Newport fisherman Dick Ramus. "Our number-one product is crab," says Rogers, now sole owner of the market. "We get crab twice a week, typically from Newport and Charleston. Since Thanksgiving, we've had no fuel expense. I had my truck converted to burn our fryer oil." Rogers still spends his summers on Prince William Sound. "It's one of the most beautiful parts of Alaska," he says. "Also one of the mellower fisheries, for weather and for competition."