IN THE GULF OF ALASKA — The blocky work boats have chugged their way up the long Pacific coastline from California, from Washington, Oregon and from all the little ports burrowed along the shoreline of Alaska. They have gathered here at the ready in the wind-tossed North Pacific--a vast armada of 4,000 vessels with names like Determined, Defiant, Steadfast and Resolution.

It is morning. The weather is merciful.

Aboard the fleet, throats are dry. Anxiety has clamped a pipe wrench down deep in the stomach. The 10,000 or so captains and crew, tough young men and tough young women, know what they are about to undertake is crazy--almost beyond the comprehension of other working Americans.

And dangerous.

And unnecessary.

And counterproductive.

You might find it the strangest way to make a buck in all the strange stories of Yankee enterprise. You might also be surprised to learn this is the brutal way in which dinner comes to your table.

At precisely high noon, the throttles are pushed open and gouts of black diesel smoke are torn away by the 25-knot breeze as the fleet steams into action.

This is the opening of America's 1992 spring halibut season.

It lasts only one day.

The longest day in the life of a fisherman. And because of it, American consumers will eat lower quality domestic halibut for the next six months. People will be injured and risk their lives. The earnings of fishermen will be depressed.

Yes, it really is crazy.

In these 24 hours, more than half of all the halibut allotted to U.S. fishermen for the entire year is brought from the bottom of the icy, green-black sea. The fish are gaffed, heaved aboard, clubbed, partly cleaned--sometimes--and dropped into the fishing holds below. Hour by hour, nonstop, about 100,000 miles of fishing line baited with 50 million three-inch hooks will be dropped to 60 fathoms to the bottom and pulled back aboard.

This is "longline" fishing, "pulse" fishing. There is no sleep, there is no rest. Through the night, groggy, exhausted crew, on decks slickened with gurry and roiling in the open seas, wrestle to subdue fish weighing up to 300 pounds as they drum their death rattle on the wood and steel of the small boats.