Deadliest Catch

Deadliest Catch short Video showing interviews and a glimpse into what kind of person it really takes to crab on the Bering Sea.

With the season finale already here and gone I thought it would be a good time to reflect on another season in the books for the crews on the Bering Sea. The season was filled with plenty of drama, as Capt. Phil became ill and his fishing career is now still questionable. There was the usual mix of bad weather, moody captains and struggling greenhorns that also provide a glimpse into the reality of it all. When Capt. Keith from the Wizard’s temper began to boil over (almost steadily) there was plenty of friendly banter on the web with people trying to decide if they love him or hate him.

With all that said I though I would open the comment section below to hear from everyone what exactly stood out for you this past season. Good or bad, let’s hear it…

As the season comes to an end the crew of the Cornelia Marie is scrambling to fish the last of their quota and get back to port to offload.  Continuing to battle the freezing spray and personal injuries such as a sprained back, frostbite, and even complications from a surgically repaired pelvis the weary crew continues the gut wrenching work, while at the same time having the health of their Captain weighing heavy on their minds.  Despite it all they are able to get the remainder of their quota on board in time to meet their deadline and return home where the Harris brothers learn the truth about their father.  Not wanting them to loose their concentration on the job at hand, Captain Phil Harris has never told his sons of just how serious his medical problems are.  Having had a blood clot pass directly through his heart and end up in his lung, he is lucky to even be alive.  However, there is little chance he would have the same fate if another clot appeared, and is forced to give himself injection as well as make daily trips to the local hospital.  With his health in such jeopardy, there is much doubt as to whether he will ever return to the Bering Sea.  But he is at peace in knowing his boys have a strong foundation to carry on even without their lifelong mentor and father on board.

For the Northwestern the mood is much more upbeat as a record season has Sig and crew smiling from ear to ear.  Edgar even gives up the opportunity for some long overdue rest to work on a practical joke to play on his elder brother.  Creating a “dummy” of a deckhand he climbs on top of the wheelhouse with it, and mischievously throws the dummy downwards as if a deckhand had fallen.  But the Captain, knowing his brother all too well, doesn’t even flinch realizing it was a prank all alone.  With the throwing of the flaming torch, meant to bring good luck the following season, the last pot is hauled the the crew and boat head to port to offload from another successful season.

On board the Wizard the mystery of the bottomless holding tank is finally revealed during the offload when a hole the size of a watermelon is discovered in the wall of the tank.  The hole had allowed the crab at that level to be dumped back into the open sea without the knowledge of the Captain and crew.  Each time the tank appeared close to full, the crab at that level would be released back into the Bering Sea causing the crew to wonder if their trip would ever be completed.  All in all with a catch of 2.5 million dollars and a payout of 68 thousand dollars per deckhand no one can really complain.

Sadly we learn about the fate of another fishing boat, the Alaska Ranger that sank just two weeks after the end of the crabbing season sending all 47 crewmen on board into the freezing sea where only 42 would be able to be rescued in time.

The Northwestern arrives at St. Paul harbor to offload only to find the freezing temperatures have quickly begun to turn the port in to a field of ice. Unwilling to risk becoming stuck in the ever thickening ice, Captain Sig attempts to leave as quickly as possible. With the ice surrounding the boat, even at full throttle the boat barely moves. Sig continues to alternate between forward and reverse trying to free up enough space to work the boat around towards the open ocean when a combination of strong winds pushing onto the ice pack towards the aft section of the boat begins to slowly spin the bow out to sea. Although the going is tough through the first thousand feet, once they clear the ice then can begin to attempt to rescue their gear from the rest of the ice pack which is drifting slowly southward and soon will be on top of the pots. Not willing to risk losing the gear which is worth aroung one hundred thousand dollars, Captain Sig manages to race back and the crew takes turns clearing ice and then hauling pots. To further frustrate the Norwegian captain the pots are full of crab, a good sign nonetheless, but with the ice pack descending on their location they will all have to be hauled and stacked to be moves to another area.

Over on the Wizard, tensions boil over between Captain Keith and brother Monty. Keith goes so far as to get in the face of an unsuspecting cameraman who attempts to continue recording long after the Captain orders the equipment off. This is far from the first time tempers have ignited in the Wizard’s wheelhouse. A while later and they call a truce putting family in front of fishing and begin turning their attentions to the hope that their new greenhorn is much more successful then the last. However their mood soon turns sour when the first seven crab pots come up with barely a crab.

Life on board the Time Bandit also shows tension between members of the same family. With Neil now retired from his duties on the deck, the brothers turn to Jonathan’s son to run the hydraulic crane. Fatigue and inexperience take it’s toll on the 25 year old Scotty Hillstrand and soon his sloppiness causes a 1000 pound pot to come off the launcher and almost injure one of the other deckhands. Luck also turns around the wrong way for the fishing as well as full pots are coming up loaded with only females and juveniles and have to be dumped at the rail. No sense wasting time sorting crabs that cannot be kept. AT the same time a wave sends the boat on a roll and the youngest Hillstrand loses control of the pot with the crane and it almost takes off the head of the boats greenhorn.

Lastly on the Cornelia Marie, Captain Phil checks in with his son Josh and lets him know he won’t be returning to the boat this season and more dramatically may not even be able to fish again. For a proud son who thought his father was invincible and would continue to fish into his seventies the news is heart wrenching. The blood thinners he is currently on to protect him from a life threatening complication also would make it unsafe to fish as even the slightest injury or wound would be too risky.

With Cornelia Marie Captain Phil Harris staying on land for the first time in seventeen years, he turns his boat and the entire million dollar operation over to the boats engineer and longtime friend, Murray. The entire crew is drained both physically as well as mentally by the time the offloading of their catch is complete and the boat returns to the fishing grounds. As for Phil he discovered that he is lucky to still be alive as a blood clot which formed in his leg traveled through his body and ended up in his lung. While his health is still in jeopardy, had the clot ended up blocking an artery while at sea it would have meant almost certain death. He is able to speak with both his boys as well which certainly provides a boost of everyones spirits.

Over on the Northwestern a lost anchor becomes an anything but routine chore out on the open waters. The anchor broke off during the last storm and along with it’s chain rests on the ocean floor and needs to be retrieved if they are to continue fishing. Edgar is able to put together a homemade grappling hook from some spare metal found on the boat. They then drag the hook over the ocean floor and with amazing luck manage to hook on the anchor chain right away. As they are bringing it up, Edgar attaches a line from the crane to help support the weight, however the boat starts drifting and the extra tension caused by the weight of the boat causes the line to snap. As they race t maneuver the boat and attach other lines to the five thousand dollar anchor the perilous ordeal turns into a four hour marathon. Eventually the anchor is rescued without injury to any of the crew.

On board the Wizard the crew is just starting to get some rest after 3 days of nonstop fishing, when they are awakened by an alarm. A quick inspection reveals a water piper has begun leaking spraying sea water used to in the holding tanks into the engine room bilges. If the leak cannot be repaired, the holding tanks will empty meaning a loss of all of the crab in the aft tanks and a loss of many of thousands of dollars. Reacting quickly Captain Keith is able to patch the leaking using some sheets of rubber and two large hose clamps. Afterwards it’s back to port to offload the crab as well as troublesome greenhorn Moi, whose replacement is already on his way to meet the boat.

It’s the start of the 2008 Opilio season, which only makes the job even more dangerous as the threat of ice???????? build up only leads to an even more hazardous situation. Before the boats even leave Dutch Harbor we hear about a deckhand falling off a stack of pots from a height of about two stories, landing on the rail and killing himself without even leaving the dock. The captains take a moment to reflect on the loss and are reminded of their own mortality before heading out to face the brunt of a powerful Arctic storm.

Before getting underway the Wizard has to take on some more diesel fuel at the fuel dock. With hurricane winds accompanying the storm this is no easy task for the 156 foot long boat as the winds hit her broadside. This pales in comparison, however, to what the boat will face later on in the open sea. Before the season started Capt. Keith decided to fish the boats maximum number of pots. Now facing heavy seas of 20 to 30 feet, the extra weight on board leaves the boat very unstable, a captain’s worst nightmare. Luckily they are able to press on and steam through it.  Their luck changes soon afterwards as they lose their hydraulic systems, leaving them without any working machinery and no way to start fishing their pots.

Over on the Northwestern, Capt. Sig and most of the crew has a bad case of the flu, making a tough job even more miserable.  Regardless, they soon leave port and steam towards the approaching storm.  Making good time, they arrive on the crab grounds ahead of the powerful storm.  So, in Norwegian tradition (Or at least Northwestern tradition) deckhand Matt takes his turn at biting the head off a raw herring for good luck to start the season.  Meanwhile the Time Bandit, with Capt. Andy Hillstrand taking his turn in the wheelhouse, in already pulling up their pots.  The numbers at first are relatively small so Andy instructs his crew to start stacking the pots on deck to be dropped in a another location.  The instruction seems to turn their luck around as the pots begin coming up fuller and fuller.

The luck isn’t as good over on the Cornelia Marie.  After spending around $50,000 to overhaul the engine back in port, it isn’t long when the system begins to overheat.  With few options while out at sea, it appears Capt. Phil will have to make the long trek back for repairs.  Lastly we hear of a worker on a processor having seizures who desperately needs medical attention.  The only option is a rescue by a coast guard helicopter and a transport back to be medivacked to an area hospital.   The only problem is they will need to fly directly through the storm, risking icing and low fuel, putting their patient and entire crew at a great risk.

Hard to imagine making this kind of money on just a few short weeks, no matter how hard the work is.  But that’s the drawer to put your life on the line as the stakes are extremely high.  But it’s about more than just the money as for many of them it’s in their blood as the only way of life they know.

Time Bandit $1,700,00 Total $52,000 per deckhand
Northwestern $1,600,00 Total $48,000 per deckhand
Cornelia Marie $1,200,000 Total $35,000 per deckhand
Wizard $1,500,000 Total $31,000 per deckhand
North American $349,000 Total $21,000 per deckhand (2 week season)
Early Dawn $523,000 Total $28,000 per deckhand

The crew aboard the North American continues to struggle as obsolete or missing equipment provides setbacks.  The buoys are hard to find as the boat travels at night without being properly outfitted with high powered sodium lights.  After three of years leasing their quota, rather than fishing, they have no sorting table.  This leaves the hard working crew to have to be constantly bending over and sorting the crabs in the totes.  Another dangerous issue is the fact that in heavy seas the filled totes are constantly sliding all over the deck and could easily take out an unsuspecting crew member as they weight several hundred pounds each.  The lack of proper provisioning isn’t the only obstacle facing the North American as the deck boss is already butting heads with this more experienced crew.  Of course hauling good numbers of crab can easily solve all but the most complicated personality problems.

Meanwhile, aboard the Wizard, Captain Keith goes out on a gamble and attempts to fish an area known as the “Slime Bank”.  This area held record numbers of crab back in the eighties but since has seen little fishing as the crabs seemed to all but disappear.  The aptly named area yields slightly more than large jellyfish as the crew pulls up 19 empty pots.  The hard work of pulling the pots comes without the reward of earnings and before long the Wizard is off to another area to drop it’s pots and try for some late season magic.  After a short soak the numbers look good in an single test pot which came over the rail with around 50 keepers.  However, their new found luck is short lived when a weld on their coiler breaks off, meaning the line on the rest of the pots will need to be hand coiled.  This extra work can be very tedious as well as time consuming but there is no possibility to make the repair while at sea.

Over on the Time Bandit we find Capt Jonathan taking care of an injured bird that found it’s way on the boat while out at sea.  “Squawky” as the bird is named, is treated to a short rest in the captains quarters before being returned to the deck where he disappears a few hours later.  Aside from that, it’s all business pulling pots as an approaching storm front starts to bear down on boat and crew.  Not fairing much better that the bird, we find Capt. Phil aboard the Cornelia Marie continuing his ritual of coffee, Red Bulls, and cigarettes.  To help keep his strength up, his son delivers him a sandwich stuffed with egg and sausage.  How’s that for a healthy diet?  To make matters worse he seems to be coming down with a cold and after 26 hours straight at the wheel decides to take a bit of well earned rest.  Good news is he has finally found the crab.  After a mediocre start his crew has been pulling up large numbers, and even while under pressure from his processor to get back in a few short days to offload, it looks like another very successful season for the Cornelia Marie and her crew.