At daylight, the crews see what they've caught. It's a tough life. No one gets much sleep when the lines are out. It takes a long time to set the line and a long time to harvest what the hooks have caught. It's hard to be careful on four hours of sleep.
Conservationists are often critical of longlining .
But, as Linda Greenlaw says in her recorded interview, being a longliner and a conservationist aren't necessarily incompatible. Plus, the government of Canada has established a Management Plan that regulates swordfishing in the Grand Banks. The Plan allows longlining. Skippers on fishing boats usually have fax machines on board to track when the good weather will end. Those fax machines act as a safety line for people who are days away from land.