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'''Deadliest Catch''' is a documentary-style television series that documents the events aboard fishing boats in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and Opilio crab fishing seasons. The Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor (located in Unalaska, Alaska) is the base of operations for the fishing fleet. The show is named ''Deadliest Catch'' because the crew of these boats are at a high risk of injury or death. Commercial fishing has long been considered one of the most dangerous jobs in America; in 2005, the Bureau of Labor Statistics ranked commercial fishing as the job occupation with the highest fatality rate with 118.4 fatalities per 100,000, almost 30 times the rate of the average worker.^[1] However, Alaskan king crab fishing is considered even more dangerous than the average commercial fishing job due to the conditions of the Bering Sea during the seasons they fish. According to the pilot episode, the death rate during the main crab seasons averages out to nearly one fisherman per week, while the injury rate for crews on most crab boats in the fleet is nearly 100% due to the severe weather conditions (frigid gales, rogue waves, ice formations on and around the boat) and the danger of working with such heavy machinery on a constantly rolling boat deck. Alaskan king crab fishing reported over 300 fatalities per 100,000 as of 2005,^[2][3] with over 80% of those deaths caused by drowning or hypothermia.^[4]
The show was created as a regular series after two well-received prequels about Alaskan crabbing were produced by Thom Beers for the Discovery Channel. The first special was a documentary entitled ''The World's Deadliest Job''; the second was a three-part miniseries called ''America's Deadliest Season'', featuring one of the vessels that would later make up the regular "cast" of ''Deadliest Catch'', the ''Northwestern''.
''Deadliest Catch'' premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The first season had ten episodes, with the last airing on June 14, 2005. Season two was filmed one year later and began airing on March 28, 2006. Season three began airing April 3, 2007.
A four-part special, hosted by Mike Rowe, called ''After The Catch'' began airing on May 29, 2007. The special has interviews with the captains and crews, behind the scene footage, and other footage not shown on the series. An additional behind the scenes episode aired on June 26, 2007.
The opening theme for the U.S. TV airings is "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, although this song is not used on the official DVD release of the first season nor in the European version of the show. During the first two seasons of ''Deadliest Catch'', only a portion of the chorus of the song was used ("I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride/I'm wanted, wanted dead or alive") as the credits showing the ships and captains featured in that season. Season three's opening credits begin with the second half of the first verse ("Another place where the faces are so cold/I drive all night just to get back home") over nighttime footage of the fishermen working on the cold and wet decks and a night vision shot of ''F/V Northwestern'' captain Sig Hansen giving a side-glance to the camera, then uses the previously used portion of the song's chorus as background while credits showing the ships and captains featured in the season roll.
Commercials for Season Three shown on the Discovery Channel family of networks featured an updated and faster version of the hit Styx song "Come Sail Away", performed by the punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
In North America, the series is narrated by Mike Rowe, while Bill Petrie reads from the same tautological North American narrative and provides a regionally familiar accent for the English speaking viewers of the show in Europe. The show takes a unique approach to censoring profanities spoken by the crews, using sound effects such as a ship's horn or a burst of radio static in addition to traditional bleeping. As these sounds are part of the atmosphere's normal ambiance, it is often difficult to realize that phrases are being censored at all.

Contents

Format

Production

Rationalization: derby vs. quota

Vessels

Featured fishing vessels

Fishing vessels with no embedded film crew

Non-fishing vessels

Episodes

Awards

See Also

References

External links

Fishing boat websites

Format

The series follows eight to ten crab fishing boats and their crews throughout two of the dangerous crab fishing seasons, the October king crab (also known as "red crab") season and the January opilio crab season. The show emphasizes the danger to the crew on the decks of these boats. Each episode has a focus on a story or situation that occurs on one or more boats, with side stories on the backgrounds and particular activities of one or two crew members, in particular the "greenhorns" (inexperienced crew members) on several boats. The fleet's captains are featured prominently throughout the episodes, highlighting their camaraderie with their fellow captains and relationships with their crew, as well as their competitive nature against the other boats in the fleet regarding the hunt for crab throughout the fishing grounds.
Because Alaskan crab fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, the U.S. Coast Guard rescue squads stationed at Integrated Support Command Kodiak (Kodiak, Alaska) and their outpost on St. Paul Island, near the northern end of the crab fishing grounds, are frequently shown doing their own dangerous work: Rescuing crab boat crew members who fall victim to the harsh conditions on the Bering Sea. The USCG rescue squad was featured prominently during the episodes surrounding the loss of F/V ''Big Valley'' in January 2005 and the loss of F/V ''Ocean Challenger'' in October 2006.
The show has no on-air host; instead, narrators provide commentary and verbally connect the storylines as the show shifts from one crab boat to another, through a mock-up radar transition screen that shows the boats in relation to each other and to the two ends of the fishing grounds, St. Paul Island to the north and Dutch Harbor to the south. Discovery Channel voice artist Mike Rowe, who narrates the U.S. airings of the series, was originally supposed to be the on-air host as well and had appeared in taped footage as himself during the first season of shooting; as filming of the first season was nearing completion, Discovery greenlighted production on another Rowe project, ''Dirty Jobs'', under the condition that Rowe choose only one show upon which to appear in person. As Rowe relates the story, Discovery told him that the two shows would be airing back-to-back on the same night, thus, "'we can't have you telling us stories about six dead fishermen on camera and making a fart joke with your arm in a cow's ass.'"^[5]

Production

The ''Behind the Scenes'' special provided insight on how the program is produced. A two-person TV crew lives on each boat profiled. They use handheld HDV cameras to shoot most of the series (one on the main deck, one in the wheelhouse). Additional footage is provided by four stationary cameras that are permanently mounted around the ship and are constantly recording. Shots from vantage points outside the boat are accomplished through a variety of methods, including the use of a helicopter (for footage near the harbor) and a cameraman on a chase boat (in season 1, the main chase boat was the ''Time Bandit''). The crew also makes use of underwater cameras, including one attached to a crab pot for a "crab's eye view" of the pot being retrieved in season 2, one mounted in the main crab tank on the ''Northwestern'' beginning in season 2, and one mounted to a submersible watercraft beginning in season 3.
Because of a lack of space on the boats, the crews do not have a sound recordist. Audio is recorded using wireless microphones worn by the fishermen and shotgun microphones attached to the cameras.
Although the equipment is carefully waterproofed, the cameras are routinely damaged by saltwater corrosion, ice, and accidents. By the end of each production cycle, most of the cameras (which have an average cost of $20,000 apiece) are no longer usable.
Some shots that would be difficult to capture with cameras, such as the cause of deadloss in a crab tank or the recreations of conditions for a boat capsizing, tipping, tangling on a pot line, etc., are done through CGI. The functioning of a crab trap was shown via CGI in the second episode of the first season. The effect of an overloaded deck as an explanation for why the ''Big Valley'' sank was shown through CGI in the early episodes of season 2, while playful sea lions tearing open the ''Northwestern's'' crab pot buoys was recreated through CGI at the start of Opilio crab season during season 3.
Sig Hansen, captain of the ''F/V Northwestern'', and Larry Hendricks, captain of the ''F/V Sea Star'', serve as technical advisors to the series' producers.

Rationalization: derby vs. quota

The series' first season was shot during the final year of the derby style king crab fishery. The subsequent seasons have been set after the change to a quota system as part of a process known as "rationalization". Under the old derby style, a large number of crews competed with each other to catch crab during a restrictive time window. Under the new Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system, established owners such as those shown on the series have been given quotas which they can fill at a more relaxed pace. In theory, it is intended to be safer, which was the main rationale for the change in the fishing rules. However, the rationalization process put many crews out of work as the owners of many small boats found their assigned quotas too small to meet operating expenses; during the first season run under the IFQ system, the fleet shrank from over 250 boats to around 85 mostly larger boats with high quotas. The fishery profiled on the current series is a very small remnant of what it once was.^[6]

Vessels

The show is filmed aboard various fishing vessels, some of which change between seasons.

Featured fishing vessels

Fishing Vessel	Captain	Season(s)
''Aleutian Ballad''	Jerry "Corky" Tilley	2, 3
''Arctic Dawn''	Ole Helgevold	Pilot
''Big Valley'' 1	Gary Edwards	1
''Billikin''	Jeff Weeks	1
''Cornelia Marie''	Phil Harris	1, 2, 3; ''After the Catch''
''Early Dawn''	Allen Oakley	3
''Erla-N''	Bing Henkel	Pilot
''Farwest Leader''	Greg Moncrief	3
''Fierce Allegiance''	Tony LaRussa	1
''Lady Alaska''	Pete Liske	1
''Lucky Lady''	Vince Shavender	1
''Maverick''	Rick Quashnick	1, 2; ''After the Catch''
	Blake Painter	3 (King crab season)
''Northwestern''	Sig Hansen	Pilot, 1, 2, 3; '' After the Catch''
''Retriever''	Jim Stone	1
''Rollo''	Eric Nyhammer	2
''Saga''	Roger Strong	Pilot, 1
''Sea Star''	Larry Hendricks	Pilot, 1, 3; ''After the Catch''
''Time Bandit'' 2	Johnathan Hillstrand (King crab season), Andy Hillstrand (Opilio season)	1, 2, 3; ''After the Catch''
''Western Viking''	Coleman Anderson	1
''Wizard''	Keith Colburn	3

During filming of the first season of ''Deadliest Catch'', the F/V ''Big Valley'' sank on January 15, 2005, sometime after 0734 Alaska Standard Time when the Coast Guard first detected its EPIRB signal. Five of the six crew perished; three were never found. Cache Seel was the only survivor. Discovery Channel film crews on the ''Maverick'' and ''Cornelia Marie'' captured the first footage of the debris field, confirming that the boat had capsized and gone down. The search for the ship is featured in the episode "Dead of Winter".
The ''Time Bandit'' can be seen in the background of the behind-the-scenes episode serving as the main chase vessel during season 1, though it is never officially identified during the season itself.

Fishing vessels with no embedded film crew

Fishing Vessel	Event	Season(s)
''Alaskan Monarch''	Ran aground at St. Paul Island due to ice in 1990. All of the crew was saved, but the boat was destroyed.	2, 3
''American Star''	Catches fire and runs aground in February 2000; all 5 crewmen plus one dog rescued[7].	1
''Big Valley''	Sank at the start of the 2005 opilio season; five of six crew died. Coast Guard investigation later determined that the boat was severely overloaded by over 30% of its declared pot weight, causing it to tip over during a storm the morning of January 15, 2005.[8]	1
''Ocean Challenger''	Four-man crew abandons ship as boat capsized and took on water in October 2006. One survivor; two bodies found; one body lost. Debris field, EPIRB, and empty life raft found, indicating vessel ultimately sank.	3
''Raven''	Capsized. All crew rescued by Coast Guard. Later towed and repaired.	pilot
''Rosie G''	Sank in 1997. Six-man crew escaped in a life raft and were rescued by the Coast Guard.	1
''Sea Rover''	Assists in the search for ''Big Valley''.	1
''Shaman''	Man falls overboard in 2004.	pilot
''St. Patrick''	Tipped 90 degrees and took on water in engine compartment in December 1981. 11-man crew tied themselves together and leapt into the sea when the life boat was lost. Only two men survived. It was later discovered that the boat had righted itself after the crew abandoned ship; the vessel was found adrift by the Coast Guard and towed into port still afloat before it finally sank while moored in port.[9]	1
''Sultan''	Man falls overboard and drowns, becoming the sixth fatality within the first 24 hours of the 2005 opilio season.	1
''Trailblazer''	Man falls overboard while tying pot stacks in October 2006; rescued by ''Time Bandit''.	3

Non-fishing vessels

Vessel name/Type	Event	Season(s)
''P/V Stimson'' (Alaska Marine Enforcement Section Patrol Vessel)	Assists in search and rescue efforts when the ''Big Valley'' sinks.	1
''USPCC Overseas Joyce'' (U.S. Pure Car Carrier freighter)	Assists in search and rescue efforts when the ''Ocean Challenger'' sinks.	3
''USCGC Munro'' (U.S. Coast Guard cutter)	Assists in search and rescue efforts when the ''Ocean Challenger'' sinks.	3
''Independence'' (processor)	Offloads the opilio from the ''Time Bandit'', anchored at St. Paul in the middle of a dangerous ice pack.	3
''Stellar Sea'' (processor)	Suffers an engine room fire at the start of the opilio season, forcing the crab boat crews to suspend fishing or look for bairdi crab.	3

Episodes

Main articles: List of Deadliest Catch episodes

To date, a total of 39 episodes of ''Deadliest Catch'' have been shown, not counting the pilot series ''America's Deadliest Season'', which had three episodes. The show draws consistently high ratings for Discovery Channel, and reruns are aired frequently during weekday mornings and as part of weekend marathons.
In the U.S., the show's normal timeslot when new episodes are airing is Tuesday nights at 9PM EST5EDT, following ''Dirty Jobs''; when the season ends for ''Deadliest Catch'', ''Dirty Jobs'' takes over the 9PM timeslot. During a recent extended hiatus for ''Dirty Jobs'' in the spring of 2007 due to a Mike Rowe back injury, ''Deadliest Catch'' reruns aired frequently in the ''Dirty Jobs'' timeslot at 9 PM. When ''Dirty Jobs'' resumed production after Rowe's recovery, Rowe filmed a commercial on location at the Mackinac Bridge during a ''Dirty Jobs'' shoot (episode 3.59, "Bridge Painter") for Discovery Channel, decrying the use of his timeslot by the other show^[10]:

"Look, don't get me wrong. I love ''The Deadliest Catch''. I watch the show myself. I know the captains. But enough already! If I don't get my timeslot back soon, I'm going to throw myself off this bridge..." (looks off-camera) "...what?" (title card with "Dirty Jobs Is Back" in white print against sludge-colored background) "Really?" (card stays for a second longer, then smash-cut back to Rowe in his bridge painter's uniform doing a victory dance) "Cool! I got my timeslot back...I got my timeslot back...my old timeslot back...''Dirty Jobs'' on Tuesdays...oh, yeah..."

Awards

''Deadliest Catch'' was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for the 2007 television season. The series itself was nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Series; the third season episode "The Unforgiving Sea" received nominations for Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Picture Editing For Nonfiction Programming, and Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-camera).^[11]

See Also

★ Alaskan king crab fishing

★ '' and ''Lobster Wars'', related shows also on Discovery Channel.

References

1. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf, Retrieved on April 28, 2007
2. Crystal, Garry: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-dangerous-jobs.htm What are the Most Dangerous Jobs?, Retrieved on April 28, 2007
3. Fatalities in the commercial fishing industry in Alaska
4. Crab-Fishing 101
5. Shock And Awe: The stars of the edutainment shows ''Survivorman'', ''The Deadliest Catch'', and ''Dirty Jobs'' share jaw-dropping tales from their brave work
6. Alaska’s Crab Fishery: Big Money Days are Gone
7. Fishing Vessel ''American Star'' Rescue; retrieved August 21, 2007
8. New Style of Crab Fishery on the Horizon; U.S. Coast Guard Warns Fishermen Against Overloading, issued by the United States Coast Guard in November 2005; retrieved July 21, 2007.
9. Alaska's Worst All-Time Shipping Losses, retrieved July 21, 2007.
10. Mike Rowe commercial for ''Dirty Jobs'', retrieved August 16, 2007.
11. Complete list of the 2007 Primetime Emmy® Awards nominations; retrieved July 26, 2007.

External links

★ Discovery.com Deadliest Catch website

Fishing boat websites

★ F/V Cornelia Marie

★ F/V Farwest Leader

★ F/V Maverick

★ F/V Northwestern

★ F/V Rollo

★ F/V Time Bandit

★ F/V Wizard