I’ve caught a couple of episodes of Ice Road Truckers over the past few weeks… for those who don’t know, its another “hard-scrabble men doing hard-scrabble work” kind of show ala Deadliest Catch (its also done by the same production team) and it airs on the History Channel. It chronicles the daily lives of truckers on Northern Canada’s “ice road”, who haul enormous loads of equipment back and forth between “civilization” and some super-isolated diamond mines up in the frozen north. They call it the “ice road” because its literally made of ice - large stretches of it cross frozen lakes where there’s nothing but a couple of inches of ice holding up 20 ton tractor trailers. The ice actually bends, buckles and cracks as they drive over it - its really incredible. No one’s fallen through the ice yet on camera, but apparently it happens more often than they’d like.
So you can expect that this show would have a lot of the same themes … tough men working long hours with little or no sleep, braving the freezing-cold elements to pull in sizeable amounts of cash. For me it doesn’t have quite the same mystique as Deadliest Catch, though it does have its moments. I guess though, its just a lot less interesting watching some guy drive a truck than it is to watch a team of 5-6 men make bait, wrangle crab pots, and pull up a new haul with no idea if it’ll be empty or full of $5000 worth of crawling-crabby-goodness.
Then, there’s Lobster Wars which - again - is made by the same production company. This one follows a bunch of lobstermen off New England. But whereas there’s real camaraderie amonst the men and boats of Deadliest Catch, it seems like there’s some real bad vibes between these guys. (Hence the eponymous “Wars”). Its a lot of the same themes as Deadliest Catch, but with a lot less danger. Here the problems arise not from mother nature or equipment failure, but from the underhanded tricks of their fellow lobstermen. I’ve only seen a couple of snippets of the show, though, so there may be more to it that I’ve just not seen yet.
They risk dying to make a living. Fishermen from the reality smash “Deadliest Catch,” storm chasers and more. Inside America’s most dangerous jobs with video you won’t believe.
Some folks have posted comments suggesting Deadliest Catch should be made into a full-fledged video game. I think with a little imagination it could probably be done. After all, there’s already bass-fishing and games of that ilk out there. This is like bass-fishing on steroids… not only do you have to worry about where the crab are and how to catch them, you have to battle the elements, fight rogue waves, assist in rescues of other crews/ships, catch your crab before the ice pack descends, etc. etc. I could definitely see these themes woven together into a playable video game. Granted it’ll probably never become a #1 hit, but there’s enough Deadliest Catch fans out there I think to make it a reasonable success.
UPDATE: Seems just over 3 out 4 respondents want the Rollo back on Season 4… so how about it, Original Productions? Give Nyhammer a chance!
So what do you think - should Original Productions bring back the Rollo in Season 4 of Deadliest Catch? Seems from the comments being made here that Eric Nyhammer and his crew are pretty sorely missed… now’s your chance to register your opinion one way or the other - take the poll!
For me, the Rollo was a great alternative to some of the more salty-dog ships like Northwestern and Cornelia Marie. Eric was cut from a different cloth than Phil, Sig, Rick and the others. He seemed a bit more refined, a bit more at-ease, with a more casual management style… sort of like the “cool boss” to have. His crew was always good for a laugh, whether they were putting on inflatable sumo wrestling suits or knocking around pinatas on the deck of the frozen ship. It was a nice change-up to see the Rollo, and I genuinely missed them in season three.
If you really want to make your voice heard, follow Eric Nyhammer’s advice and write a letter to the production team. Original Productions can be reached at:
Original Productions
308 W. Verdugo Ave
Burbank, CA 91502
tel.818.295.6966
A couple of folks have sent in questions or posted comments asking if and when Season Four of Deadliest Catch will be airing on the Discovery Channel. At first I heard rumors about an October 2007 return with new episodes, but now it sounds like it may be March of April 2008, according to the Daily News:
Either way, it sounds like Discovery’s made the right choice and has ordered another action-packed season from Original Productions. If this last season is anything to go by, these guys still have lots of new tricks up their sleeve. The deep-sea submersible camera, which apparently didn’t work out very well in season 3 because of inclement weather, may make another appearance, providing some dramatic shots of the ocean floor and crab in their natural habitat. Or the producers and camera crew may figure out some great new way to film a shot… they already use chaser boats, gimbled-cameras on helicopters… heck, they even strap themselves onto hydraulic cranes and lay suspended 30 feet out from the boat just to get a good shot of the deck. (My personal favorite was the CrabberCam - where they attached a small camera to a skateboard helmet and had one of the deckhands wear it while he worked… you really got a feel for the fisherman’s-eye-view of things.)
Anyway, the important thing is YES, Virginia… there will be a Season Four! The big questions now are, which boats and captains will be featured? Phil and Sig are shoo-ins, and it looks like the Time Bandit Brothers will probably stick around. The Maverick will probably stay in, just so we can see Blake in his transition from deckhand to greenhorn-captain to full-fledged captain. But what about the others? I’m not crazy about the Farwest Leader, though I do have a soft-spot in my heart for Ragnhild… the boat I really miss though is the Rollo. Eric was always good for a snarky comment or a subtle witticism, and his crew was constantly pulling pranks for the camera. Maybe the production guys thought they were trying too hard to make “good television”? Who knows. But of all the captains I always liked Eric, just as much as Sig or Phil, if only because he seemed like he was cut from a different cloth… a little cleaner and more refined, younger and with a more laid back management style. He provided a nice contrast with the other salty-dog captains.
Just realized my Tivo caught Deadliest Catch: Behind the Scenes this week - going to watch it tonight, I can’t wait! This is exactly the sort of thing I’ve been waiting for… insight into how the show is actually produced, what the cameramen have to go through to get some of those AMAZING shots. I always wondered how well they interacted with the crews; whether the deckhands grudgingly accepted them, were outright hostile to them, or actually enjoyed their company.
We’ll find out soon enough.
UPDATE:
What a great show! It really made me admire the camera crew, if only because they make themselves so relatively invisible during the season, and this documentary showed just how difficult that was within such cramped quarters.
We got to see also that the captains and crews are pretty good natured about having the cameramen onboard. Phil and Sig seemed pretty much at ease dealing with cameramen getting in the way, falling over, or asking them to repeat the same line 2, 3 or more times. Of course there were a few shots where the deckhands or captains basically tell the camera guys to f*ck off, but hey, when you’re in a high-stress environment like that, such things happen.
Its amazing that pretty much all their equipment gets thrown away at the end of every season… not because they’re wasteful, but just because the Bering Sea gets into the electronics and either breaks the instruments or corrodes them with salt water and ice.
All in all a good show. Makes me sad that Season 3 is over, but just remember - Season 4 is just around the corner.
One of the most common questions here is: “How do I become an Alaskan crab fisherman?” Or, more specifically, how do they apply to get on one of the six or so boats actually featured in Deadliest Catch.
Let’s disabuse you of this notion right off the bat. Neither Sig nor Phil, heck not even greenhorn-captain Blake, is going to hire some guy off the Internet who loved watching them on the Discovery Channel. Guys who get crabbing jobs get them either (1) because they are friends/family with one of the crew or (2) are incredibly, incredibly lucky, in the perfectly right place at the perfectly right time. So right there, that eliminates 99.99% of the population of wanna-be crab fishermen from contention.
Then you have to consider the fact that some 75% of greenhorn crab fisherman absolutely hate the experience. So even if you are lucky enough to get on board, you may be in for a seriously rude awakening.
If you have any ego, whatsoever, and can’t be bossed around ruthlessly while keeping a smile on your face and a spring in your step… find another job.
If you enjoy sleeping at least once every twenty-four hours… find another job.
If you think breaking your wrist or losing a toe means you can’t work a full 71-hour shift… find another job.
In the end you need to remember - crab fishing is one of the most difficult, rewarding and competitive jobs out there, and its only becoming more and more popular with every Emmy-award nominated season of Deadliest Catch. Guys who land these jobs tend to keep them. Where else are you going to make six month’s salary in three or four days?
Finally you need to ask yourself why you want a job on an alaskan crab boat. Do you just want to test your masculinity? Do you want a chance to get on TV? Do you want bragging rights for your kids and grandkids, so you can sit back years from now and say, “Yeah, I did that once”? If you answered yes to any of the above, then you’re probably not cut out for the job.
The guys who succeed on these boats don’t do it because of the romance of the sea, or the chance for fame or glory. They do it because they’ve got families to take care of and traditions to uphold. Crab fishing is in their blood. Their lives are literally in the hands of their crew, and vice versa, so captains like Sig and Phil don’t want to have to rely on some snot-nosed kid who just wants the “adrenaline rush” of being a crabber for one season, just so he could say he did it.
So, if after reading all of the above you think you’ve passed all the tests and met all the criteria… then what?
Well, like a wise man once said, 90% of life is just showing up. Get yourself to Alaska - preferably either Dutch Harbor or St. Paul Island.
Even better, land a job with one of the processing facilities. The Hansen brothers of the F/V Northwestern suggest getting a job with Icicle, Trident, Westward, Unisea, Peter Pan or Royal Aleutian Seafoods. They’ll usually pay to get you up to Alaska, and they’ll even give you a place to crash while you work. The job is shit, the pay is slightly better than shit, but you’ll have a foothold in the industry and you’ll start to meet real-life crab fishermen. In this business, like in most small industries, its not what you know, its who you know - so the more fishermen you meet, the more contacts you’ll have and the better chance you’ll have of someone considering you for a rare job opening on deck.
The crew of the Northwestern also suggest the following two links on their website:
Good luck to you! God knows there’s a part of me that would love to be on a crab boat for three days at peak season… but there’s an even bigger part that realizes I’d be curled up in the fetal position most of the time, puking my brains out and realizing what an awful, awful mistake I’ve made.
Hope you’re more of a man than I am.
UPDATE: If you’d like the experience of being a crab fisherman without actually, you know, being a crab fisherman… you can always sign up for a tour with the Aleutian Ballad. Yes that’s right, the very same boat that was featured on Deadliest Catch. They’re now doing 4-hour tours for people who want to learn more about the fish industry, and get an up-front and personal view of what life is really like for the men they’ve seen only on television. ? No, you won’t be going 400 miles out to sea with 50-60 foot waves crashing on deck - in fact, they stay in a relatively calm and protected part of the bay - but this is about the closest most of us land-lubbers will ever get to the “dream” (nightmare?) of being a deckhand on a full-fledged crab boat. So why not check them out?
For those who don’t remember, yes, the Aleutian Ballad is the ship from Deadliest Catch that literally flipped over onto its side after taking a monster rogue wave in the middle of the night. The engines died, the computers were knocked out, and the crew was thrown from their quarters. Luckily the ship righted itself and they limped back to port for repairs. Incredibly, it was all caught on video. Click here to watch on YouTube.
On the surface, Deadliest Catch would seem to be a fairly repetitive show. The weather turns bad. Waves batter the fleet. Crab pots are dropped. Crab pots are drawn up. Some are full, others aren’t. After a few episodes you’d think most viewers would flip to something else.
But we don’t.
The show is riveting, as much now at the close of its third season as it was at the very beginning. Why is that exactly? Well I’m no expert, but I have some theories.
Basically, Deadliest Catch is – if you’ll forgive the loaded metaphor – the perfect storm of network television. No other reality show has the rich brew of themes underlying what may at first appear to be a fairly routine fishing show. Among the most compelling themes:
Theme #1 - The Boy Becomes a Man
One of the primary focus-points of every season has been on the Greenhorns (i.e. rookies) - a brilliant move on the part of the producers. We watch these inexperienced youngsters (well, most of them are young), cockily announce their entry into the field, and we see their determination to prove themselves worthy of their fellow deckmates. We watch them either rise to (or fall away from) the challenges that the Bering Sea has to offer.
This is truly one of the most compelling themes of the show, perhaps because we (the viewers) are ourselves as much Greenhorns as those youngsters. We know as little, if not less, about the business of crabbing than they do, so we can’t help but identify with them as they struggle to keep up the pace and learn the ropes. Those who make it to the end of the season – through all the pain, sleep-deprivation, and, let’s face it, screaming and derision of the full-share deckmates – have truly achieved something great. And we’ve seen them through that amazing journey, every step of the way.
Theme #2 - The Gamble to Get Rich Quick
Americans love to gamble – if you need convincing of this, just do a quick count of all the televised poker tournaments that are on cable these days (and while you’re at it, check their ratings). Its part of the American dream to want to “get rich quick.” So in that sense, these crab fisherman are living out the American dream. They make as much in three days as some of us make in an entire year. Sure, it may be dirty, disgusting, dangerous work, but they’re out there and they’re doing it – they’ve thrown their chips on the table. Come hell of high water (and in their case, its generally always high water), they’ve made the gamble, and there’s a part of each of us that wishes we had the guts and gumption to do the same.
Of course, getting out on the boat is only the first step. You actually have to catch the crab to make money. And that’s why we can watch two, three, or five hundred pots being pulled up by the hydraulic wench, and never get tired of it. Will there be a full pot of 800 opies? Or just a couple of hangers on and a disoriented codfish? You just never know. It’s a gamble. And that’s why we’re riveted.
Theme #3 - The Last Bastion of American Masculinity
Its not for nothing that the theme song for Deadliest Catch was Bon Jovi’s classic “Dead or Alive.” The cowboy theme runs strong in this show, and with good reason – there’s so darned few left in the world. A cowboy doesn’t have to herd cattle or ride horses or even catch crab. The cowboy ethos is instead concerned with brute masculinity, about working a damned tough job for long hours, until your body is busted up and bleeding and you can barely walk in a straight line.
Sure, there are lots of “hard” jobs left in America. But on the whole, we’ve spent the last fifty years sanitizing and shrink-wrapping every aspect of daily life until its as safe and worry-free as possible. Machines do our heavy lifting, “safety-inspectors” make sure we sit in ergonomic chairs and don’t suffer repetitive stress syndrome. We’ve got warning labels on just about every imaginable product. And we have a national craze about suing folks whenever we bump our heads or sprain an ankle on their property.
Then you watch Deadliest Catch, and you get a glimpse into how “real” men used to be. These guys sever a finger and then wrap the stump in electrical tape so they can keep on working until the job is done. They work 72 hours, non-stop, in single-digit temperatures.
Meanwhile, we regular Joes bitch and moan about cold half-caff-lattes and half an hour of unpaid overtime.
These are just three of many underlying themes to this show. There are many others, but there are the ones that grip me, personally.
I get a lot of people asking me how I can watch “the same old stuff”, three seasons in a row. My answer is always, watch the show again – really watch it – and then see how you feel afterwards. I don’t give a whit about fishing… heck, I don’t even eat crablegs. But I can watch this show for hours on end. Nothing else on television feels so real. No other characters fill me with that unique mix of envy, dread and admiration.
I’d kill to have a beer with Sig Hansen.
And I’d kill twice to never, ever have to be a Greenhorn on his boat.
