Woman Wins Lawsuit Over Sex Harassment Aboard Factory Trawler
Even now - five years after the sexual epithets and demands for sex from her male co-workers aboard a fishing trawler - Danelle Hoddevik says it's painful to talk about.
"It was just too intense an experience to put into words," she said. "It's just something you want to forget about."
Hoddevik, 32, says her father was a fisherman who taught her about the challenges of life at sea. What he didn't tell her was that a fisherman's life can be far different from a that of a fisherwoman, who may face sexual and verbal harassment, and even the taunts of a crew member who exposed himself to her.
A King County Superior Court jury recently awarded Hoddevik $300,000 in a civil suit she filed against Seattle-based Arctic Alaska Fisheries, which operated the Ocean Enterprise, a fishing-factory trawler.
At the trial, Hoddevik told jurors it was these very acts during a six-week period in 1992 that left her depressed and now suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
In awarding her compensatory damages, jurors concluded the company had been negligent in allowing an environment of harassment, abuse, assault and retaliation to exist.
An attorney for Arctic Alaska Fisheries, a subsidiary of Arkansas-based Tyson Chicken, said the company would appeal.
"Tyson has a zero-tolerance policy against harassment of any kind in its workplace," said David Bratz, who represented the company during the civil trial. "It (the company) is disappointed in the jury verdict, believes Ms. Hoddevik's claims are untrue, and plans to appeal."
Hoddevik's trial attorneys, Jeffrey Cowan and Mary Ruth Mann, paint a different portrait of their client's life at sea.
"After what happened to her, Danelle was sometimes not even able to get out of the bed," said Mann. "She had lost track of who Danelle really was. She was completely depressed and had no ability to trust."
"The maritime industry has traditionally been male-dominated," added Cowan. "And what happened on this fishing vessel reflected what has been the maritime industry's approach with women, which is, if women want to go to sea, they do so at their own risk."
According to testimony and court documents, Hoddevik was one of four women in a crew of 28 on the Ocean Enterprise.
She started off as a processor whose duties included cutting, trimming, cleaning, gutting and packaging fish.
But she testified that after complaining about the offensive remarks men were making, she was reassigned to work as the trawler's "Hazel."
In the parlance of the fishing industry, a Hazel is a housekeeper who does the laundry, cleans fish slime off the floors and walls, and keeps the coffee room and common areas of the ship cleaned.
During her stint as a Hazel, according to court documents and testimony, Hoddevik was asked to engage in sexual acts, to shower with her co-workers, questioned about her sexual orientation and forced to watch a naked man scurry about in the hall just outside her room.
In one instance, a co-worker told her he needed help with his laundry. But when they got to the laundry room, she told the court, he exposed himself to her.
"I spent my life on fishing boats and I was very good at it," said Hoddevik, who now plans to return to college.
"I resent that the company was able to take that away from me."