I think it’s the “Wanted: Dead or Alive” part.
When they originally showed their special on crab fisherman many months ago I thought it was really interesting. I always knew it was a hard and dangerous job but actually seeing it was different. After seeing that show I decided that I’d never bitch about the price of crab ever again. As far as a series goes I think crab fishing is far to repetitive to be of any interest. My wife enjoys the show but I can’t help but think I’ve already seen it before.
Marc
Another huge fan of the program. I watch every episode (and try to catch the reruns when possible).
My question is, do these guys do this work without using “stimulants”? I’m not trying to cast aspersions on them but it seems to me that they couldn’t do this type of work over the long periods (>70 hours) of time they do without a little “help”. The only “stimulants” I’ve ever seen them use is caffeine (not that would show them using anything illegal). IIRC on one show they mentioned that one of the ship captains was on deck something like 68 of 72 hours. I know these guys are in great physical condition but I’ve got to wonder if they do get a little “help" to perform this work.
I second that emotion. I haven’t watched the show - had it on in the background the other night. Some dude went overboard and I’m not sure if they found him and all i could think was “all of this, for crab?”
Sad 
Crazy show, entertaining as hell. I take my hat off to those people.
As far as stimulants, the only thing used on a regular basis is caffeine. Not just coffee, but they take a lot of the No-Doze type of caffeine tablets with them.
The job is too dangerous for street drugs, although a lot of fishermen play as hard as they work when they come home from the fishing grounds, and I have know more than a couple to od and die after a good season. I have worked on fishing boats, as well as on the oil spill cleanup after the Exxon Valdez disaster, and the hours are so long, it is so cold, and it’s difficult enough to be safe without adding anything “speedy”. In addition to that, the government has a “No Tolerance” policy, and if the boat is boarded and searched and some illegal substance is found, the skipper loses his boat, permits, etc. and so they are strict about that stuff coming on board.
As for the negative comments, well, you would have to know the fishermen to understand why they do it, and even then you still probably wouldn’t understand. These men are a different breed than those who live domesticated lives. Alaska, the real Alaska, is not for ordinary men to understand, and the people who live here do extraordinary things as a rule, rather than as an exception. Supply and demand, and these are the men with the guts to do the supplying. Sometimes they come home rich, sometimes not so rich, sometimes broke, and, occasionally, they don’t come home. Put them behind a desk, and they would be miserable. At the moment, I don’t know how else to explain it.
How can you say that? You’ve never bothered to even eat them! A table full of blues, steamed with beer and smothered in Old Bay is about 20 times as tasty as Alaskian crabs (Which are tasty in their own way, good, but not a patch on real crabs).
Yes, I have, and still don’t like them.
Unless the blues are alive (which I can occassionally get), I find them equally delectable. An advantage to Alaskan crabs is that I don’t have to fight nearly as hard to get to the meat. Blue claws are an adventure to shuck.
My husband and I watch this show regularly. We will be sad after next week’s episode as it is the last one. I knew that this type of work was insane and dangerous. I’m glad that there are others that are able to see it as well. Its always good to get an appreciation for things that you may take for granted.
I’d love to meet some of the people who do this type of work. I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever get to Alaska for a visit!
Please don’t take what I said as being negative (except the part about the Bon Jovi song).
I fully understand it’s a job and how fishing is indeed a lifestyle. It IS their life to do what they wish.
I’m just saying I don’t think a food item like crab is worth human lives.
Thanks for your comments, kaiwik. Like I said, I was not trying to cast aspersions on these men. I am totally in awe of their physical prowess. I’ve never thought about the possibility of the boat being searched for illegal drugs by the CG. I’m sure the boat owners would be a bit upset if their boat were confiscated. Also the safety factor never occurred to me. Makes sense.
Another question for you (or others) to help me with. After the crabbing season ends, how do they (Alaska Fish and Game?) prevent boats from continuing to fish? IIRC there are something like 150+ boats spread out over the Bering Sea. I would think policing this would be nearly impossible. Is it totally on the honor system?
Lennon Lives and Seven I was not offended, simply trying to explain the men who fish for crab in the Bering Sea. It’s a crazy job, but they are the modern day cowboys. Perhaps that is why they used Bon Jovi’s song. “I’m a cowboy” (the fishermen) “On a steel horse I ride” (the boats) “I’m wanted, dead or alive.” (even if we lose them, we want to bring them home)
(Incidentally, the man who was washed off the f/v Sultan, his body was found and returned to his family.)
Please allow me to reiterate that the people who leave the Lower 48 for Alaska are not the average American citizen. The crabbers, and actually all the fishermen, are much as I would imagine those pioneers and cowboys were during the Wild West time in history. This is the last frontier. Men come from around the world to crab in the Bering Sea. My husband is an Alaska Native, but I know many crabbers who come up from the States, and every one of them has that extra something in their personality which thrives on the hard work and long hours. The risks, I believe, lend an adrenaline kick which helps them get through the season. When the salmon season ends in late August (mid September for my husband, he fishes with a skipper who beats the water for every salmon he can get into the seine for as long as the fish are still bright enough for the canneries to buy them) the crabbers begin pumping themselves up for red (king) crabbing. My husband (let’s call him Moses, because that’s his name, and it’s shorter than typing ‘my husband’) and his crabbing brother, Pat the Animal, get together and begin psyching each other up. They talk about how much they are going to catch, what a great trip it’s going to be, etc. They begin doing boat work and stocking the boat with enough groceries and the other necessities of life to last a couple of months before September is over, and they take off the first week of October. Depending on the weather it takes them 3-5 days to get to Dutch Harbor, (from Kodiak) where the gear is stored. They mend pots, check lines and buoys, load up the gear, steam out to the fishing grounds and wait for the opening announcements.
Then they crab. The Deadliest Catch was filmed during extremely calm weather. Generally there are severe winter storms and the men have to break ice around the clock as well as do the rest of the work. The season is longer, because you just can’t fight the storms and win.
Also, as was seen on the last episode, this season was the end of an era. Fish and Game stopped the halibut derbies several years ago, and allotted IFQ’s for each boat according to their averaged catch for the last few years (I think it was five years.) While it has saved lives and boats, it has also driven the smaller boats and crew out of business, and the big boats have bought up as many halibut IFQ’s as quickly as they could, so now they are able to fish halibut at the skipper’s discretion throughout the season. The prices (for halibut) are higher in the Spring, but April is a notoriously stormy month, and Moses went out for a week long trip which turned into a twentysix day trip, due to having to sit out the winds at anchor. Now F&G are doing the same with crab. It’s so sad, partly because it will be the end of the smaller boats, and as was said on the show, even with an alotted catch they are still going to go out as early as possible and get their crab as quickly as they are able. The fleet will simply be smaller.
Zero Tolerance has been in effect for at least fifteen years, and they mean business. Cocaine is big in Alaska, and I hate it. I know guys who used to take an ounce out with them. They either didn’t come back, or made stupid mistakes and are now home doing jobs like cleaning the sewage systems on the Coast Guard Base. (hey Jimmy!) I make it my business to get to know the skipper and crew Moses is fishing with, and I have no problem not letting him go out on a party boat. I am a bitch about it, but I want my man to come home. Both the Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game randomly board and search boats, so besides the fact that it’s stupid to do drugs while fishing, the skippers are pretty harsh about the crew not bringing drugs on board.
Not so much on the crabbing boats, although there are party boats in the Bering Sea as well, but the Kodiak fleet (I am speaking about what I know, and I do know the Kodiak fleet) has had a problem with cocaine on the boats in the fairly recent past, skippers using as well, and men have died needlessly because of it. Men I have known have been lost even though they weren’t partying, because the skipper was, and the skipper made bad decisions. Thus the Zero Tolerance policy. When the job is over and they are on their way home from the Bering Sea the guys will have a couple of shots, a few beers, maybe a little smoke, but celebrating is generally reserved for when they hit port. Then watch out! In the bars, the bells ring constantly, and the men are out for a good time!!!
Why do they do it? Why risk life and limb for…crab? Because they are Bering Sea Crabbers. Even if you include the boat and gear work, and travel time, when was the last time you made $20,000+ cash for three to five days work? The status of being a crabber, and the lure of big money are irresistible to a certain sort of man. Just as the gold rush brought thousands here, in terrible conditions, and many died, so crab lures the same type of man to the Bering Sea. It’s either in you, or it’s not.
As for enforcing the closures, the Coast Guard and Fish & Game are a large presence while crabbing is happening, and there are huge fines and penalties (pot seizures) for both begininng too early and not quitting when the closure is announced. The openings and closings are to the minute (for example "The season will close at 23:59) and while it is a given that some jerks will continue to drop and haul gear before and after the season, inevitably word gets around, and they are more closely watched in the future. In every fishery they participate in.
By necessity so much was left out of the series. One of the reasons they didn’t focus on the greenhorns during opies as deeply as they did during red crab is in large part because they skippers generally take the red crew with them for opies. If a guy doesn’t work out during reds, he won’t last during opies. I believe that the Discovery Channel wanted to give time to the two tragedies, which did take a lot of air time. Having known Gary Edwards, I am pleased that they did. He was a hell of a man, and is sorely missed.
Have I missed any questions? I have a chest cold and the Thera-Flu is making me a little woozy. I love talking about Alaska in general and Kodiak in particular, so feel free to ask away, either on the SDMB or email me. The following is a bit of poetry which might shed some light on what kind of men these are. We fishermen’s wives love our men, and we stand by them, but not without trepadition.
Thank you to all who have expressed their admiration for these men. I wish you could all come up here, sit at the B&B or Tony’s, and listen to these men talk after the season closes. They are awesome individuals.
There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they clime the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest.
Robert Service
from " The Men That Don’t Fit In "
My sister’s husband fished and crabbed out of Alaska for many years. He’s on the downside of 55 now, and only fishes a little, and that out of Oregon. I think Sis started nagging for him to slow down after he turned 55. It’s a tough, young man’s game.
But he did have those runs, when he’d come back with several thousand dollars for a few day’s work.
I am not attacking here, but:
Is a ton of coal that keeps your family from freezing in winter worth a human life? A diamond that graces your finger? A ton of iron ore that makes the car that gets you to and from work and puts food on the table for your family and pays the mortgage that keeps them from living on the streets? A bushel of corn that feeds the steer that becomes the hamburger that you eat? (Hey, I am from a farm family, and farmers get killed in accidents every year.)
My point is that there are a lot of dangerous jobs out there, and the market forces do their magic. Foodstuffs that exact a high price in human lives tend not to dominate the diet, but some commodities can bear the brunt of such a cost.
Aww, hell, on preview, this post reads like gibberish. Please be gentle with me.
I don’t recall if this has been specifically mentioned yet, but kaiwik, I want to thank you for your first-person, knowledgeable, and beautifully expressed thoughts in this thread.
You may all now wipe the mist from your eyes.
The coal and iron and needed items. I look at those things differently I guess. As for diamonds, no. There is a family boycott on diamonds because of the mines.
I’m just a code monkey. The worse thing that might happen to me on the job is a sore wrist from typing all day or I might drop a server on my foot. But I do have to drive the highways everyday. I might buy it driving home from work.
I guess it’s just a different view on what risks are worth the payoff. Is 20-30k in a handful of days a good wager when the flip side is leaving my family with a dead father/husband? To me it isn’t. But I’ve never been driven by money. I’d rather have less cash if that means a better life (less stress, more free time, more time with the family, etc)
That said, 20-30k in a week and careful spending one could slack the rest of the year. Hmmmm? Where do I sign up? heh heh.
kaiwik, thanks for your post. Your insights have helped me understand these guys and what drives them. Your input is appreciated.
Another question regarding the close of season. At the close of season (e.g. 23:59) do all the pots have to be out of the water or if they have not pulled the entire string of pots just dump the crabs pulled after that time back into the ocean?
Thanks again and I hope you’re feeling better.
LL
Well put, Oslo Ostergoth and thank you for the compliment. I am rather passionate when it comes to these men of the sea, they are so brave, work so hard and selflessly, and are some of the highest quality human beings I have ever had the pleasure to be in the company of. A fisherman’s wife and family are always taken care of, when their husband/father/sons are out on the grounds, there is always some one around town to lend a hand if it’s needed.
Lennon Lives, when ADF&G announce the closure time, they give it far enough in advance for the boats to pick the gear one more time. After picking each pot the door is then tied open and left unbaited, so any creature which wanders in is able to wander out. After delivering their catch, the boats go back out, load the pots on board, take them to wherever they store their gear (my husband’s skipper stores his in Dutch Harbor) where they offload the pots and mend any gear which needs it, and then they head home.
In regards to your question as to where to sign up, buy a plane ticket to Dutch Harbor and walk the dock, that is how one gets on a crab boat if they aren’t already established with a boat! 
It is highly competitive employment, crabbers stay on the boats they are with for years, and barring any personal emergency a particular crewman may be experiencing, there aren’t a lot of openings for seasoned fishermen, let alone greenhorns. The salmon season has begun kicking though, and while that entails a longer amount of time (June through August-early September) you can make about as much money, providing you are on a boat like the one my husband is on. Ronald, the skipper, highlines regularly, which means precious little time not fishing!
I must add that, until you have pulled a personal subsistence pot full of king crab, rushed home, cooked it up and gorged on the thick, sweet legs, you do not know king crab! No other crab will ever meet gustatorial satisfaction of such a meal!
Another fan of the show here. I absolutely love crab and will second the " never complain about the cost again" sentiment.
Please tell me about subsistence pots. Are they pots for personal use with ( I assume) less restrictions? Now that’s some fishing I could get into!