Deadliest Catch

Alaska enjoys a rich history stretching back at least 9,000 years. Commercial fishing for crab had been going on for decades, but it wasn't until the 1950's that large scale commercial harvesting began in earnest. Fishing was great until the 1970's when the fisheries started to collapse. Since then the fleet's numbers have followed the crabs.

There are four species of king crab in Alaska: brown(golden), blue, red and scarlet. The most familiar are the red king crab. The scarlet, while reportedly sweet tasting are too few in number for commercial fishing. The number of King crab caught has collapsed in the last 30 years from over 100 million pounds in the late seventies to the current levels of around 18.5 million pounds. The Kodiak area, a once prodigious crab producer has yet to recover since being closed in 1983. Other formerly productive fisheries have also been closed in the hopes that they recover their viability. King crab are not the only species being targeted. Oplilio (snow), Tanner, Dungeness and Hair crabs are commercially fished. Here is a general map of the Alaskan crab fisheries.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (an agency of the Federal Government) sets the fishing seasons. During the first season of Deadliest Catch it was derby rules for fishing. A season open date and time was set. It closed based on an estimate of when the fishing fleet would reach the season's quota. The crews worked almost non-stop hauling in crab as fast as they could catch them. Each ship's captain had only the roughest estimate of how long they would be able to fish.

Today each fishing vessel is assigned a quota by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. It's up to each ship to fill their quota in the time they are alloted. The rule changes brought controversy and unhappiness to the local independent fishing industry. Dutch Harbor is where the majority of fishing vessels that crab are based out of during the season. You can view a brief history for Dutch Harbor that stretches back two hundred plus years here.

Deadliest Catch is another Emmy winning show for Discovery (Just one win, but DC has won several other awards!!) and they have given everyone some very nice resources. If you need to know when the show airs look right here. To discuss the show with other fans visit the forums. The Discovery Channel has added a wiki for Deadliest Catch. There is tons of great content over there like these DC Captains trading cards. Find out some basics about the ships and crew being featured this season.

If you are craving video, Discovery is offering tons to watch. Check out the video podcasts too. You can read this season's production blogs here. You can download all kinds of stuff for your mobile like wallpaper, Captain's quotes and lots more. You can find things of interest about Deadliest Catch grouped together here.

Discovery has also made the original Deadliest Catch game. Be warned - the competition is tough and you may find it addicting. If you own an Xbox 360 or PC (snicker) be sure to check out this game that Sig and family helped develop. Vote for your favorite ship and crew as often as you like. You can write a caption and post it for Deadliest Catch photos from the Discovery Channel. An extremely cool feature right now is a shout out to the fourth season's featured ships and crews.

The Deadliest Catch chats for this season have, sadly, come to an end. I'll re-link to the chats when the next season starts. Do you want to read the chat sessions? Over at the Deadliest Catch Wiki you can find the transcripts.

The Deadliest Catch crews follow boats during two crab seasons: red king and opilio. The crew brings with them almost 5000 pounds of equipment to record what happens on the Bering Sea. Included in that are 63 cameras of which only a third survive the season. The Discovery Channel cameramen filled up over 5000 video tapes and recorded more then 8000 hours of footage. From all those hours, 16 one hour shows are distilled. Eighteen cameramen spent an average of 36 days out at sea recording the fourth season. Of those 18, eleven returned from previous seasons of Deadliest Catch.

King crab season kicks off the same date each year: October 15. While boats are also legally allowed to catch opilio in October, due to biological issues and market demand, most crews wait until January to fish their quota. Red king crabs are the largest crab species, weighing an average of six to 10 pounds (with the record female and male weighing 10.5 and 24 pounds, respectively. The male's leg span was nearly 5 feet across!). Opilio crabs weigh an average of one to three pounds. At about $4.50 per pound (up from $3.90 last year), fishermen can make between $27 and $45 for each red king crab they catch. At about $1.70 per pound (up from $1.50 last year), an average opilio crab can fetch $1.70 to $5.10. The crews are allowed to harvest only adult male crab. All females and juveniles must be thrown back.

This year the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was 18.5 million pounds for Bering Sea red king crab and 55 million pounds for opilio crab. Per rationalization guidelines, each boat in the fleet was given a predetermined quota to catch. This season, around 80 boats headed out to sea to fish their share of crab, down from over 250 just two years ago (prior to rationalization). The fleets ships range in size from 58 to 165 feet with most ships averaging around 120 feet. The ships are crewed by three to nine deckhands led their Captain.

Since crabs do not appear on radar or migrate in the same pattern each year, captains must rely on their experience and intuition to find the best locations to fish. The crabs are caught in 600-800 pound metal pots that are baited with ground herring, sardines or cod before they are dropped overboard.

Poor water circulation, warm water or fresh water in the boat's holding tank all have the potential to kill crab. In fact, being in stagnant water will kill crab faster than being left out of the water. If a crab dies in the boat's holding tank, it emits toxins that can poison the other crabs. One dead crab could possibly turn an entire hold into garbage!

You can grab chat and IM icons for all the current seasons' ships at the DC Wiki. User bchu created the template that I used to make the two following icons. bchu's bang-up job on the originals and permission to use them made it all possible!!

Drop a note in the Bering Sea Guestbook if you'd like one that you don't see at the DC Wiki. I'll probably make it just for you!

Go be friends with your favorite ships and crew who maintain a page! Be warned, some profiles are set to private and you have to be a friend to view it.

Aleutian Ballad
Cornelia Marie
Farwest Leader
Maverick
Northwestern
Rollo
The Banditas (Time Bandit)
Wizard


Jake Anderson
Matt Bradley
Tristan Burris
Mike Fourtner
Lynn Guitard
Edgar Hansen
Norm Hansen
Josh Harris
Andy Hillstrand
John Hillstrand
Neal Hillstrand
Crosby Leveen
Nick Maurer
Russell Newberry
Eric Nyhammer
Art Peterson
Corky Tilley

Last but certainly not least we have a personal fan page on Myspace. The music selections rock!

Deadliest Catch

If you'd like to look in on Dutch Harbor, Alaska check out these dockside webcams. They are courtesy of Coastal Transportation, Inc.

The only other thing on the Alaskan webcam plat du jour is a page with 15 webcams to click through to!

Season four synopses can be found here and here.

Instead of taking down a great Corey Arnold photo, I'll leave it up and direct you to click here or here.

Season Two Synopses can be found here or here.

Season One

In the first season, we follow the hardships of ten ship's crews. Watch eyes start to glaze after the first 24 hours of almost non-stop work. Observe how a few manage to smoke on a deck that seems to be underwater half the time. See crab relieve all ills.