Deadliest Catch is a
documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
television series produced by
Original ProductionsOriginal Productions is a television production company based in Burbank, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Thom Beers. It is best known for producing reality television shows for the Discovery Channel and, more recently, the History Channel and truTV....
for the
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
. The series documents the events aboard
fishing boatsA fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....
in the
Bering SeaThe Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
during the Alaskan
king crabKing crabs, also called stone crabs, are a family of crab-like decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their flesh, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab .King crabs are generally believed to be...
and
OpilioChionoecetes is a genus of crabs that live in the cold waters of the northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans .Other names for crabs in this genus include "queen crab" and "spider crab" - they are known by different names in different areas of the world.The generic name Chionoecetes means snow ...
crab fishing seasons. (See
Alaskan king crab fishingAlaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the winter months in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is performed during a very short season, and the catch is shipped worldwide...
)
The
Aleutian IslandsThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
port of Dutch Harbor (located in
Unalaska, AlaskaUnalaska is a small city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off of mainland Alaska.According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the...
) is the base of operations for the
fishing fleetA fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing , or all fishing vessels of a country or region.Although fishing vessels are not formally organized as if they...
. The show's name derives from the inherent high risk of injury or death the crews face due to the hazardous work environment and nature of the work itself.
Deadliest Catch premiered on the
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
on April 12, 2005, and runs in over 150 countries. 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. April 15, 2008, was the fourth season premiere. Season five premiered on April 14, 2009. A sixth season has been announced for next year.
Format
The series follows eight to ten crab fishing boats and their crews throughout two of the dangerous
crab fishingAlaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the winter months in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is performed during a very short season, and the catch is shipped worldwide...
seasons, the October
king crabKing crabs, also called stone crabs, are a family of crab-like decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their flesh, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab .King crabs are generally believed to be...
(frequently called "red crab" or "red gold" by crew members) season and the January
opilio crabChionoecetes is a genus of crabs that live in the cold waters of the northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans .Other names for crabs in this genus include "queen crab" and "spider crab" - they are known by different names in different areas of the world.The generic name Chionoecetes means snow ...
("orange crab", "orange gold", "snow crab", "opies", or, as
Northwestern crew member Matt Bradley dubbed them, "Norwegian dollars") season. The show emphasizes the very real danger to the crew on the decks of these boats; situations are just as dangerous for the Discovery Channel camera crews filming them as they are for any other member of the fleet. 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" (rookie 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. Common themes woven throughout the overarching storyline of the particular fishing season include friendly rivalries between the captains (particularly between
Sig HansenSigurd Lille Hansen is the Seattle, Washington-based Captain of the fishing vessel Northwestern. Hansen has been prominently featured in all seasons of the documentary television series Deadliest Catch, where he also serves as technical advisor for the production...
of the
NorthwesternF/V Northwestern is a crab fishing vessel notable for being featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The vessel is owned and operated by the Hansen family of Washington state; the current captain is Sig Hansen and his brothers, Edgar and Norman, are both deckhands/engineers on the...
, Johnathan Hillstrand of the
Time Bandit and Phil Harris of the
Cornelia MarieThe F/V Cornelia Marie is one of the commercial crab fishing boats featured on the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The boat is owned by Cornelia Marie Devlin and Phil Harris . Two of Phil's sons, Jake and Josh Harris, work on the boat as well...
), the familial ties throughout the fleet (the Hansen brothers, who own the
Northwestern; Phil Harris and his two sons on the
Cornelia Marie; brothers Johnathan, Andy, and Neal Hillstrand and Johnathan's son Scott of the
Time Bandit, brothers Keith and Monte Colburn of the
Wizard), the stresses of life on the Bering Sea, and the high burnout rate among greenhorns.
Because Alaskan crab fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, the
U.S. Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
rescue squads stationed at
Integrated Support Command KodiakIntegrated Support Command Kodiak is the largest operating base of the United States Coast Guard, in Kodiak, Alaska. It includes Air Station Kodiak, LORAN Station Kodiak, and other units in the Coast Guard's Seventeenth District...
(
Kodiak, AlaskaKodiak is one of 6 communities and the main city on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. All commercial transportation between the entire island and the outside world goes through this city either via ferryboat or airline...
) 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/VA fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....
Big Valley in January 2005, the loss of F/V
Ocean Challenger in October 2006, and the loss of F/V
Katmai in October 2008. Original Productions keeps a camera crew stationed with the Coast Guard during the filming of the show.
Narration
The show has no on-camera host. Instead, narrators provide commentary and verbally connect the storylines as the show shifts from one crab boat to another.
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
voice artist
Mike RoweMike Rowe is the name of:*Michael Rowe, television writer for Futurama*Mike Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs*Mike Rowe, the defendant in the case of Microsoft vs MikeRoweSoft...
describes the action for North American airings; UK voice artist Bill Petrie, reading from a slightly altered script, offers a regionally familiar accent for the English speaking viewers of the show in Europe. The show transitions between boats using a mock-up
radarRadar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for RAdio Detection And...
screen that shows the positions of the boats relative to one another and to the two ends of the fishing grounds, St. Paul Island to the north and Dutch Harbor to the south.
Rowe was originally supposed to be the on-camera 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 JobsDirty Jobs is a program on the Discovery Channel in which host Mike Rowe is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the typical employees. The show premiered with two pilot episodes in November 2003...
, 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." Most of the footage Rowe shot during the first season became part of the first season's "Behind the Scenes" episode and Rowe later hosted the
After the Catch specials in which the captains had a roundtable discussion of their experiences. An episode of
Dirty Jobs saw Rowe return to Alaska to take part in another fishing-related job, during which he made reference to the crab fishing of
Deadliest Catch.
In addition, the show occasionally uses alternate methods of
censorCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
ing profanities spoken by the crew, using sound effects such as a ship's horn or a burst of radio static in place of the traditional "
bleepA bleep censor is the replacement of verbal profanity with a beep sound , in television or radio. It is mainly used in the UK, the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan.-History of use:...
".
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 Sony HVR-Z5U and HVR-Z7U
HDVHDV is a format for recording and playback of high-definition video on a DV cassette tape. The format was originally developed by JVC and was supported by Sony, Canon and Sharp. The four companies formed the in September 2003...
cameras to shoot most of the series (one on the main
deckA deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...
, 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
helicopterA helicopter is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft because the helicopter achieves lift with the...
(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
NorthwesternF/V Northwestern is a crab fishing vessel notable for being featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The vessel is owned and operated by the Hansen family of Washington state; the current captain is Sig Hansen and his brothers, Edgar and Norman, are both deckhands/engineers on the...
beginning in season 2, and one mounted to a
submersible***Also see Submersible drilling rig for offshore drillingA submersible is a commerical or non-military midget submarine with limited service range and is typically transported to its area of operation by a surface vessel or large submarine....
watercraft beginning in season 3.
Because of a lack of space on the boats, the crews do not have an audio mixer. Audio is recorded using
wireless microphoneA wireless microphone, as the name implies, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated....
s worn by the fishermen and shotgun microphones attached to the cameras.
Although the equipment is carefully waterproofed, the cameras are routinely damaged by
saltwaterSeawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%. This means that every of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts...
corrosionCorrosion is the disintegration of a material into its constituent atoms due to chemical reactions with its surroundings. In the most common use of the word, this means a loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen. Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a...
, ice, and accidents.
Filming episodes of
Deadliest Catch is a dangerous occupation for the camera crews on board the boats. In the early seasons, when many of the camera crews had little to no experience on crab boats, they frequently ran into dangers not normally encountered when filming a documentary.
Northwestern captain
Sig HansenSigurd Lille Hansen is the Seattle, Washington-based Captain of the fishing vessel Northwestern. Hansen has been prominently featured in all seasons of the documentary television series Deadliest Catch, where he also serves as technical advisor for the production...
told talk show host
Jimmy KimmelJames Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Before that program, Kimmel was also well-known as co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show...
that he saved a cameraman's life during the first season, screaming at him to get out of the way just seconds before a 900-pound crab pot swinging from a crane crossed the space where the cameraman had been standing and filming. In another incident, showcased on the behind the scenes special, an inattentive cameraman ended up having his leg fall through an open hatch on the deck of one of the boats when he unwittingly stepped into the hole, suffering three broken ribs (and, according to the cameraman himself, having to buy a case of beer for the entire crew as per tradition on crab boats).
Interactions between the film crew and the fishermen appear in the show occasionally. During an episode of season 4,
Wizard captain Keith Colburn was seen demanding that cameras be turned off when he got into a heated argument with his brother, Monte Colburn. The cameras were turned off, but the Colburns neglected to remove their wireless mics and the subsequent exchange was recorded and featured in the episode. The same season,
Cornelia Marie crewmember and later acting captain Murray Gamrath, concerned for the well-being of injured captain Phil Harris, was shown requesting the film crew keep a close watch on Harris. During Season 5, the camera crew was told specifically on the
Northwestern that they not film a crew member being informed of the death of his sister.
Some shots that would be difficult to capture with cameras are
computer-generated imageryComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
(CGI):
- CGI was used in the first two seasons, and again in season 5 after the sinking of the Katmai, to demonstrate how the severely cold water of the Bering Sea causes men without survival suits to drown within minutes, showing the decrease in blood flow and the gradual failure of vital organs.
- In the second episode of the first season, CGI was used to show how a crab trap works.
- In the early episodes of season 2, CGI was used to show how the overloaded deck of the Big Valley caused her to sink.
- The playful sea lions tearing open the Northwestern's crab pot buoys at the start of the Opilio crab season in season 3 were computer generated.
- In episode 6 of season 4, CGI was used to show how the falling cable of the picking hook of the Time Bandit would have killed greenhorn Shea Long had it failed a few seconds later when a pot was attached to it.
- In season 5, CGI was used to illustrate the sinking Katmai deploying liferafts amidst battering waves.
- In season 5, episode 8, CGI was used to show how a tarp would protect the Wizard's pots from freezing.
Sig HansenSigurd Lille Hansen is the Seattle, Washington-based Captain of the fishing vessel Northwestern. Hansen has been prominently featured in all seasons of the documentary television series Deadliest Catch, where he also serves as technical advisor for the production...
, captain of the
Northwestern serves as a technical advisor to the series' producers.
Subject matter
Commercial fishingCommercial fishing is the activity of capturing fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse...
has long been considered one of the most dangerous jobs in America. In 2006, the
Bureau of Labor StatisticsThe Bureau of Labor Statistics , a unit of the United States Department of Labor, is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is an independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
ranked commercial fishing as the job occupation with the highest fatality rate with 141.7 per 100,000, almost 75% higher than the fatality rate of pilots, flight engineers and loggers, the next most hazardous occupations. However,
Alaskan king crab fishingAlaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the winter months in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is performed during a very short season, and the catch is shipped worldwide...
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, with over 80% of those deaths caused by drowning or hypothermia.
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 QuotaIndividual fishing quotas are one kind of catch share, a means by which many governments have tried to regulate fishing. Due to the widely recognized depletion of wild fish populations, governments set a species-by-species limit of total allowable catches...
(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. The transition to the quota system was also expected to increase the value of crab, by limiting the market of available crab. An influx of foreign crab negated some of these gains during the 2006 season.
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 89 mostly larger boats with high quotas.
Theme music
The opening theme for the U.S. TV airings is "
Wanted Dead or Alive"Wanted Dead or Alive" is a song from Bon Jovi's 1986 album Slippery When Wet. The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and was released in 1987 as the album's third single. The song peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the third single from the album to reach the...
" by
Bon JoviBon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Fronted by lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , Bon Jovi formed in 1983 with guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, bassist Alec John Such and drummer Tico Torres. Other than the departure of Alec John Such in 1994 and...
, although this song is not used on the official
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
releases nor in the European version of the show. It was also not used for the first four seasons broadcast on Discovery Channel Canada, but is now used for its broadcasts of Season 5.
Commercials for Season Three shown on the Discovery Channel family of networks featured an updated and faster version of the hit
StyxStyx is an American rock band. Their hit songs have included "Come Sail Away", "Lady", "Mr. Roboto", "Renegade", "Babe", "Blue Collar Man" and "The Best of Times"...
song "
Come Sail Away"Come Sail Away" is a song by Styx from their album The Grand Illusion. One of the band's biggest hits, it was released in 1977 , rising to number 8 on the Pop Singles chart and helping The Grand Illusion reach multi-platinum sales in 1978.Musically, "Come Sail Away" combines a plaintive,...
", performed by the punk rock cover band
Me First and the Gimme GimmesMe First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in 1995. The Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. The band is named after a children's book of the same name by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione...
.
Incidental music used in the episodes themselves is provided by Amygdala Music, a music production group run by Leslie Beers, wife of
Deadliest Catch creator/producer
Thom BeersThom Beers is an American television producer and narrator/ voice over artist. Beers, a former producer and executive with Turner Broadcasting and Paramount Syndicated Television, has produced over 40 television series since the mid 1990s, most under the banner of his own production company formed...
.
In addition to incidental music, entire compositions written and performed by well-known recording artists are also added as "episode themes." An example would be the song "Always a Rebel," written and performed by folk-rock recording artist Vinnie James, at the request of the show's producer, Matt Renner, when the two met in Dutch Harbor during the filming of the 2008 season of Deadliest Catch. The song appeared as the theme track to "The Final Hour," which was the season finale for the 2008 season. Lines of the song were inspired by accounts of life on the Bering Sea by Josh Harris of the
Cornelia Marie and series Director of Photography Zac McFarlane.
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 |
Gary Edwards |
1 (Opilio season) |
| Billikin |
Jeff Weeks |
1 (Opilio season) |
Cornelia MarieThe F/V Cornelia Marie is one of the commercial crab fishing boats featured on the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The boat is owned by Cornelia Marie Devlin and Phil Harris . Two of Phil's sons, Jake and Josh Harris, work on the boat as well...
|
| 1 (Opilio season), 2, 3, 4, 5 (start of King Crab season, Opilio Season); After the Catch 1, 2, 3 |
| Murray Gamrath |
4 (End of Opilio Season), 5 (King Crab Season); "After the Catch" 3 |
| Early Dawn |
Allen Oakley |
3 |
| Rick Fehst |
4 |
| Erla-N |
Bing Henkel |
Pilot |
| Farwest Leader |
Greg Moncrief |
3 |
| Fierce Allegiance |
| 1 (King crab season) |
| Incentive |
Harry Lewis |
5 (Opilio season); After the Catch 3 |
| Lady Alaska |
Pete Liske |
1 (Opilio season) |
| Lisa Marie |
Wade Henley |
5 (King crab season) |
| Lucky Lady |
Vince Shavender |
1 (King crab season) |
| Maverick |
Rick Quashnick |
1 (Opilio season), 2; After the Catch 1 |
| Blake Painter |
3 (King crab season) |
North AmericanThe F/V North American is one of the commercial crab fishing boats featured on the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The boat is owned by Erling Skaar. Both sons of Erling Skaar, Sten and John Skaar, work the boat. Sten Skaar captains the North American for all crabbing voyages...
|
Sten Skaar |
4 |
| Northwestern F/V Northwestern is a crab fishing vessel notable for being featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The vessel is owned and operated by the Hansen family of Washington state; the current captain is Sig Hansen and his brothers, Edgar and Norman, are both deckhands/engineers on the...
|
Sig HansenSigurd Lille Hansen is the Seattle, Washington-based Captain of the fishing vessel Northwestern. Hansen has been prominently featured in all seasons of the documentary television series Deadliest Catch, where he also serves as technical advisor for the production...
|
Pilot, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; After the Catch 1, 2, 3 |
| Retriever |
Jim Stone |
1 (Opilio season) |
| Rollo |
| 2 |
| Saga |
Roger Strong |
Pilot, 1 (Opilio season) |
| Sea Star |
Larry Hendricks |
Pilot, 1, 3, 4, 5 (chase boat); After the Catch 1, 2, 3 |
| Time Bandit The F/V Time Bandit is a commercial crab fishing vessel co-captained by brothers Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand. It is featured on the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The Time Bandit is a 113-foot house aft boat owned by the Hillstrand brothers that was designed by the Hillstrands' father...
|
Johnathan Hillstrand (King crab season)
Andy Hillstrand (Opilio season) |
2, 3, 4, 5; After the Catch 1, 2, 3 |
| Trailblazer |
Wayne Baker |
3, 5 |
| Vixen |
Shaun Miles |
1 (Opilio season) |
| Western Viking |
Coleman Anderson |
1 (King crab season) |
| Wizard The F/V Wizard is a crab fishing vessel that is owned and operated by Keith Colburn and his wife Florence. She has recently been featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The owner/captain is Keith Colburn, his brother, Monte, is his co-captain. Gary Soper is the current First Mate...
|
Keith Colburn |
3 (King Crab season), 4, 5; After the Catch 1, 2, 3 |
| Monte Colburn |
3 (Opilio season) |
During filming of the first season of
Deadliest Catch, the F/V
Big Valley sank on January 15, 2005, sometime after 0734
Alaska Standard TimeThe Alaska Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting nine hours from Coordinated Universal Time . During daylight saving time its time offset is only eight hours . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 135th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.The zone...
when the Coast Guard first detected her EPIRB signal. Five members of the six man 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".
Harris was forced to leave during the
C. opilio season in season 4 due to what turned out to be a
pulmonary embolismPulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
, and his medical issues prevented him from going out during the king crab portion of season 5. Murray Gamrath relieved him as captain in both seasons. A camera crew stayed with Harris both when he was hospitalized in Season 4, and again after his forced departure at the start of Season 5, and he continued to make occasional appearances as Season 5 began, as of 12 May appearing in episodes 1 and 2 of the fifth season.
Not to be confused with
St. Louis CardinalsThe St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball...
managerIn baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager ; this individual controls matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
Tony La RussaAnthony "Tony" La Russa, Jr. is a manager in Major League Baseball, currently with the St. Louis Cardinals...
.
Nyhammer, captain of the F/V
Rollo, served as a senior deckhand on the
North AmericanThe F/V North American is one of the commercial crab fishing boats featured on the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The boat is owned by Erling Skaar. Both sons of Erling Skaar, Sten and John Skaar, work the boat. Sten Skaar captains the North American for all crabbing voyages...
during the King crab portion of season 4.
The F/V
Time Bandit can be seen in the background of the behind-the-scenes episode serving as the main chase vessel during season 1, though she is never officially identified during the season itself.
The F/V
Trailblazer was seen in the season 3 episodes "Man Overboard!" and "Cheating Death". She was also featured in the 5th season of Deadliest Catch.
The F/V
Vixen did have a film crew on the boat; none of the footage aired in the U.S. version, but did air in some of the international editions.
Fishing vessels with no embedded film crew
| Fishing Vessel |
Event |
Season(s) |
Alaska RangerFV Alaska Ranger was a fishing Factory ship owned and operated by the Fishing Company of Alaska of Seattle, Washington. The ship was constructed in 1973 for use as an oil field service vessel...
|
Took on water in her rudder room and stern and sank on March 23, 2008. The forty-seven people on board were forced into the water; all but five were rescued. |
4 |
| 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 |
Caught fire and ran aground in February 2000; all 5 crewmen plus one dog were rescued. |
1 |
| Big Valley |
Sank at the start of the 2005 opilio season; five of six crew died. Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
investigation later determined that the boat was severely overloaded, carrying 30% more pots than normal, causing her to tip over during a storm the morning of January 15, 2005. |
1 |
| Galaxy |
Caught fire at sea during 2002 king crab season. All 23 crew members were rescued by Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
; three men later died from injuries sustained during the fire. |
1 |
| Icy Mist |
Took on water and grounded on western short of Akutan Island. |
5 |
| Jennifer A |
Partner boat of Time Bandit. Pranked by Time Bandit with a flour pot during the season 3 wrap-up. |
3 |
| Katmai |
A head and gut fishing vessel capsized and sank in the Aleutian Islands early in the morning on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. Only four of the 11 crew members were saved; two were never found. One of the survivors, the vessel's captain, appears on After the Catch 3. |
5 |
| Master Carl |
Sank in April 1976 returning home from tanner crab season. All four crew members abandoned ship and made it into the life raft, but only two were found alive. |
1 |
| Nuka Island |
Hit by large rogue wave north of St. Paul island, temporarily disabled. |
5 |
| Ocean Challenger |
Four-man crew abandoned ship as boat capsized and took on water in October 2006. One survivor; two bodies found; one body lost. Debris field, EPIRB, and an empty life raft found along with an empty survival suit indicated vessel ultimately sank. Rescue efforts were featured in the season 3 episodes "A Tragic Beginning" and "The Unforgiving Sea". |
3 |
| Raven |
Capsized. All crew rescued by Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
. Later towed to Dutch Harbor and repaired. |
pilot |
| Roaming McGee |
Built in the early eighties, this craft was seen briefly at the docks in the season 3 episode "The Hammer and Ice" and featured as a hidden boat in the Xbox 360 video game. |
3 |
| Rosie G |
Sank in 1997. Six-man crew escaped in a life raft and were rescued by the Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
. |
1 |
| Sea Rover |
Assisted in the search for Big Valley. |
1 |
| Shaman |
Man fell overboard while on the pot stack in 2004 and drowned. |
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 herself after the crew abandoned ship; the vessel was found adrift by the Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of seven uniformed services. It is unique among the military branches in that it has a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set...
and towed into port still afloat before she finally sank while moored in port. |
1 |
| Sultan |
Man fell overboard and drowned, becoming the sixth fatality within the first 24 hours of the 2005 opilio season. |
1 |
| Trailblazer |
Man fell overboard while tying pot stacks in October 2006; rescued by Time Bandit. |
3 |
| Unidentified vessel |
Shadowed the Wizard and was accused of tampering with the Wizards pots. The vessel is shown on screen but its markings are digitally obscured. |
4 |
Non-fishing vessels
| Vessel name/Type |
Event |
Season(s) |
Cougar Ace
(Cargo) |
Took on water, tipped over on her side during a storm at sea and was towed into Dutch Harbor in the first episode of Season 3 |
3 |
Independence
(processorA factory ship, also known as a fish processing vessel, is a large ocean-going vessel with extensive on-board facilities for processing and freezing caught fish...
) |
Offloaded the opilio from the Time Bandit, anchored at St. Paul in the middle of a dangerous ice pack. |
3 |
Island Enterprise
(processor) |
Crewmember med-evaced by United States Coast Guard rescue helicopter. |
4 |
| (U.S. Coast Guard cutter)
Assisted in the search and rescue efforts when the Katmai sank. |
5 |
(U.S. Coast Guard cutter) |
Conducted an at-sea boarding of the Rollo. |
2 |
(U.S. Coast Guard cutter) |
Assisted in search and rescue efforts when the Ocean Challenger sank. |
3 |
USPCC Overseas Joyce
(U.S. Pure Car Carrier freighter) |
Assisted in search and rescue efforts when the Ocean Challenger sank. |
3 |
Stellar Sea
(processor) |
Suffered an engine room fire at the start of the opilio season, forcing the crab boat crews to suspend fishing or look for bairdi crabChionoecetes is a genus of crabs that live in the cold waters of the northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans .Other names for crabs in this genus include "queen crab" and "spider crab" - they are known by different names in different areas of the world.The generic name Chionoecetes means snow ...
. Towed back to Dutch Harbor and repaired. |
3 |
P/V Stimson
(Alaska Marine Enforcement Section Patrol Vessel) |
Assisted in search and rescue efforts when the Big Valley sank. |
1 |
Instead of footage of being shown, footage of was shown.
Episodes
As of the end of season 5 in 2009, a total of 69 episodes of
Deadliest Catch have been shown, not counting the pilot series
America's Deadliest Season, which had four episodes. The show draws consistently high ratings for Discovery Channel; season three attracted more than 49 million viewers over the course of the season and over 3 million viewers per first-run episode, making it one of 2007s most successful programs on cable TV.
Award nominations
Deadliest Catch was nominated for four
Primetime Emmy AwardThe Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
s 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).
Pilots
The show was created as a regular series after two well-received
pilotsA television pilot is a test episode of an intended television series. It is an early step in the development of a television series, much like pilot lights or pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity, or pilot holes prepare the way for larger holes. Networks use pilots to...
about
Alaskan crabbingAlaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the winter months in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is performed during a very short season, and the catch is shipped worldwide...
were produced by
Thom BeersThom Beers is an American television producer and narrator/ voice over artist. Beers, a former producer and executive with Turner Broadcasting and Paramount Syndicated Television, has produced over 40 television series since the mid 1990s, most under the banner of his own production company formed...
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
NorthwesternF/V Northwestern is a crab fishing vessel notable for being featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. The vessel is owned and operated by the Hansen family of Washington state; the current captain is Sig Hansen and his brothers, Edgar and Norman, are both deckhands/engineers on the...
. Beers did the voiceover narration for both series; when Discovery picked up the show and ordered an 8-episode season, Beers turned the narration duties over to fellow Discovery Channel voice artist
Mike RoweMike Rowe is the name of:*Michael Rowe, television writer for Futurama*Mike Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs*Mike Rowe, the defendant in the case of Microsoft vs MikeRoweSoft...
, allowing Beers to continue working on new show development through his production company
Original ProductionsOriginal Productions is a television production company based in Burbank, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Thom Beers. It is best known for producing reality television shows for the Discovery Channel and, more recently, the History Channel and truTV....
.
Specials
After the Catch is a
documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
-style television mini-series that follows the captains from
Deadliest Catch when they're not fishing. The captains and crew members swap stories old and new about the experiences and sights while fishing the cruel Bering Sea. The first season aired in 2007, filmed at the Lockspot Cafe, a bar in Seattle, Washington's Ballard neighborhood, hosted by
Deadliest Catch narrator Mike Rowe. After the Catch II aired in 2008, filmed at Pratty's Bar in Gloucester, Massachusetts with Mike Rowe returning as Host. The third season, titled After the Catch III aired in 2009, filmed at RTs Longboard Bar and Grill in
San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego , named after Saint Didacus , is the second-largest city in California and the ninth largest city in the United States, located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States. The US Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 1,279,329 as of 2008...
with
Cash Cab'sThe United States version of Cash Cab airs on the Discovery Channel. This version of the show, hosted by stand-up comedian Ben Bailey, takes place in New York City. Anyone who hails the Cash Cab does not know that they are about to be on a game show until they hire the cab and the driver informs...
Ben BaileyBenjamin Ray "Ben" Bailey is an American comedian, licensed taxi cab driver, and game show host for Discovery Channel's Cash Cab.-Career:...
hosting.
The
After the Catch miniseries was one of Discovery Channel's highest rated miniseries in 2007 and spawned several additional after-the-series type follow-up documentaries such as
Everest: After the Climb, the 2007 follow-up to
Everest: Beyond the LimitEverest: Beyond the Limit is a Discovery Channel reality television series about yearly attempts to summit Mount Everest organized and led by New Zealander Russell Brice....
.
Books
In April 2008, Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand, co-captains of the
Time Bandit, with
Malcolm MacPhersonMalcolm Cook MacPherson was an American national and foreign correspondent for Newsweek magazine and the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books.-Biography:...
, released a book titled
Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs (ISBN 978-0345503725) on their experiences as crab fishermen.
Also in April 2008, Discovery Channel released the book
Deadliest Catch: Desperate Hours (ISBN 978-0696239427). Edited by Larry Erikson, the book contains true stories of life and death at sea, as related by the captains and deckhands featured on the series.
Video games
In February 2008, Sig Hansen and Liquid Dragon Studios announced the upcoming release of a video game for
Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles....
and
PCA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator...
inspired by the
Deadliest Catch series entitled
Deadliest Catch: Alaskan StormDeadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm is a simulation computer game for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows developed by Liquid Dragon Studios and published by Greenwave Games. The game was created by Northwestern Games.-Overview:...
. Liquid Dragon designers spent time with the Hansens on the
Northwestern in the safety of Dutch Harbor and out on the Bering Sea to give them a sense of the real conditions that needed to be duplicated in the game. The game itself features the
Northwestern,
Cornelia Marie, and
Sea Star as crab boats that can be chosen by the player, along with the
Bering Star and the
Shellfish. On June 17, 2008, the game was released in stores around North America.
See also
- Lobstermen: Jeopardy at Sea
Lobstermen: Jeopardy at Sea is a multi-part documentary/reality show on the Discovery Channel chronicling the Fall 2005 North Atlantic Lobster fishing season aboard several fishing boats. Created by Thom Beers, it is heavily patterned after and can be considered a spin-off of fellow Discovery...
and Lobster WarsLobster Wars is a documentary television series on the Discovery Channel. It documents men and one woman fishing for lobsters off the Georges Bank near the northeastern coast of North America...
, related shows also on Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable TV channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It provides documentary programming focused primarily on popular science, technology, and history...
.
External links
Fishing boat websites