Man vs. Nature: Crab Fishing in the Bering Sea
Fishermen battle freezing temps and 40-ft. waves in pursuit of the Alaskan crab.
SEATTLE, May 19, 2008— -- When Alaskan king crab season begins each winter, hundreds of fishermen descend upon Dutch Harbor, Alaska. It's a race against time, in dangerous conditions, to catch as many crabs as possible.
If the fishermen are successful, they can bring in millions of dollars worth of crabs, but if they aren't, they will barely cover their expenses, and worst of all, crew members may get hurt or even die.
The Discovery Channel's television series about crab fishing in the Bering Sea is one reality show in which reality is real: everything from the mishaps, the disasters and the haul of cash from the ocean.
It's not just about catching crab. Good storytelling requires interesting characters, and "Deadliest Catch" has a cast Hollywood couldn't invent.
There's Capt. Sig Hansen and his brother, deck boss Edgar Hansen. Phil Harris, the Hillstrand brothers and Keith Colburn round out the team with nearly 100 years of Alaskan fishing experience among them.
The cameras roll while they work the deck at 20 degrees below zero, when they eat, when they are sleepless for days, and when a rogue wave hits the ship in the middle of the night.
They know the cameras are there, but with the cold, the danger and the exhaustion, they stop caring.
Now into their fourth season on television, these otherwise anonymous fishing captains and their crews have become rock stars of the sea.
"I'm the guy everybody wants to do a shot with. I go into a bar and I get 30 or 40 shots," Jonathan Hillstrand said.
"A lot of women, they'll watch the show, then they'll look at their husband and say, 'What the hell's your problem?'" Harris said.
Even rock stars know them.
"When we were in Vegas, me and my wife, right -- there's a guy, he's getting all these autographs and chicks are getting pictures with him. And it was Vince Neal from Motley Crue. I shake his hand and he looks at me and says, 'Captain Sig.' The guy jumps out of his skin," Hansen said.
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