Ever seen the TV show "The Beachcombers"? Terrible acting and plots, but
Great scenery (shot in Gibsons), and the profession of "beachcomber" (one
who makes a living gathering unclaimed logs and selling them) is
legitimate, at least here in Canada. Too bad you have to be licensed -
I've thought a few times about hooking a line on one and towing it home...

Lloyd

There's pretty good money in it, apparently. One night in Comox, I helped a guy
land a small commercial boat. There waws nobody aboard but the skipper and
about an 8 year old girl. He was having a bit of trouble getting to the dock,
as he had a 20 or 30-foot *log* secured to his boat and it was screwing up his
ability to manuever.

When we finally hauled him over to the cleats I asked "How was the fishing?"

"Fishing, hell!" he answered. "See that log? It's Sitka Spruce and they make
guitars and pianos out of it. Heck if I'm going to worry about a couple of
hundred bucks worth of fish, I just snagged a $600 log!"

Now of course that was $600 Canadian, butit would still be $50 or better in
"real" money. :-)