Deadliest Catch

Deadliest Catch
Season 4 Title Card
Format	Documentary
Created by	Thom Beers
Narrated by	Mike Rowe
Opening theme	Wanted: Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	72 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	40–45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Discovery Channel
Original run	April 12, 2005 (2005-04-12) – present

Deadliest Catch is a documentary television series produced by Original Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series documents the events aboard fishing boats in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and Opilio crab fishing seasons. (See Alaskan king crab fishing)

The Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor (located in Unalaska, Alaska) is the base of operations for the fishing fleet. 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 Channel 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.^[1] Season five premiered on April 14, 2009.^[2] A sixth season has been announced for next year.^[3]

Format

The series follows eight to ten crab fishing boats and their crews throughout two of the dangerous crab fishing seasons, the October king crab (frequently called "red crab" or "red gold" by crew members) season and the January opilio crab ("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 Hansen of the Northwestern, Johnathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit and Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie), 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 Guard rescue squads stationed at Integrated Support Command Kodiak (Kodiak, Alaska) 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/V 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 Channel voice artist Mike Rowe 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 radar 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 Jobs, 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."^[4] 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 censoring 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 "bleep".

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 HDV cameras to shoot most of the series (one on the main deck, 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 helicopter (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 Northwestern beginning in season 2, and one mounted to a submersible 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 microphones worn by the fishermen and shotgun microphones attached to the cameras.

Although the equipment is carefully waterproofed, the cameras are routinely damaged by saltwater corrosion, 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 Hansen told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel 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.^[5] 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 imagery (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 Hansen, captain of the Northwestern serves as a technical advisor to the series' producers.

Subject matter

Crew members struggle to recover a crab pot as a wave crashes over the side of the ship.

Commercial fishing has long been considered one of the most dangerous jobs in America. In 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics 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.^[6] However, Alaskan king crab fishing 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,^[7][8] with over 80% of those deaths caused by drowning or hypothermia.^[9]

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 Quota (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.^[10] 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.^[11]

Theme music

The opening theme for the U.S. TV airings is "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, although this song is not used on the official DVD 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 Styx song "Come Sail Away", performed by the punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

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 Beers.

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.^[12]

Vessels

The show is filmed aboard various fishing vessels, some of which change between seasons.

Featured fishing vessels

^1 During filming of the first season of Deadliest Catch, the F/V Big Valley sank on January 15, 2005, sometime after 0734 Alaska Standard Time 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".

^2 Harris was forced to leave during the C. opilio season in season 4 due to what turned out to be a pulmonary embolism, 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.

^3 Not to be confused with St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

^4 Nyhammer, captain of the F/V Rollo, served as a senior deckhand on the North American during the King crab portion of season 4.

^5 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.

^6 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.

^7  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

Non-fishing vessels

^8  Instead of footage of USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) being shown, footage of USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39) 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 2007's most successful programs on cable TV.^[22]

Award nominations

Deadliest Catch was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards 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).^[23]

Related extras

Pilots

The show was created as a regular series after two well-received pilots about Alaskan crabbing were produced by Thom Beers 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 Northwestern. 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 Rowe, allowing Beers to continue working on new show development through his production company Original Productions.

Specials

After the Catch is a documentary-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, California with Cash Cab's Ben Bailey 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 Limit.

Books

In April 2008, Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand, co-captains of the Time Bandit, with Malcolm MacPherson, 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 360 and PC inspired by the Deadliest Catch series entitled Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm. 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.^[24] On June 17, 2008, the game was released in stores around North America.^[25]

See also

• Lobstermen: Jeopardy at Sea and Lobster Wars, related shows also on Discovery Channel.

References

External links

• Official website
• Official Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm website
• Deadliest Catch at the Internet Movie Database

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