‘Deadliest Catch’: Another season on the high seas
Crews deal with health, financial issues, as well the ever-present danger
Published: April 14, 2009, 12:30 am
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It’s March 16, and Capt. Sig Hansen of the fishing vessel Northwestern is back in the snug harbor of Seattle, having finished an autumn season of fishing for Alaskan king crab and a winter season going after opilio crab.
“I’ve been home for a week now,” he says. “Opies was good. The fishing, for us, was good. There was a lot of ice this year. It was very cold — lots of ice, very early this year.
“There were boats that got damaged from some of the storms we had. The ice blocked some people in, so there’s always that concern. It was very close.
“We put a few dents in the side of the boat trying to get through it. We could barely make it though — I was pretty worried for a bit.”
As fans of Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” know, the towheaded Norwegian- American is usually pretty cool in the face of Bering Sea hazards, so if he was “pretty worried,” you can draw your own conclusions about what lay in store for the fleet.
Tonight, the unscripted adventure series returns for a fifth season, and it’s hardly smooth sailing in Alaskan waters.
Hansen, along with Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand of the Time Bandit, Keith Colburn of the Wizard, and Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie, spent the previous summer sinking thousands of dollars into boat repairs, betting on large hauls to help recoup the investment.
On top of money issues, storms and ice, two captains have more personal concerns.
Chewing-tobacco user Colburn nervously awaits the results of a biopsy of a lesion in his mouth; and Harris deals with ongoing uncertainty after suffering a leg embolism the previous season.
“Well, he’s doing better,” says Hansen of Harris. “I don’t think he’s out of the woods yet.
“I know he went to [the island port of] Dutch Harbor. I don’t know if I can tell you if he went fishing or not, but he was up there. Yeah, he’s still a part of the show.”
Reminded that rumors had floated around last season that Harris had passed away, Hansen says, “Well, if he dies, I’ve got to write a script, so I can say something [expletive] at the funeral.”
As if financial and health worries weren’t enough, tragedy befalls the fishing vessel Katmai in October, and Discovery’s cameramen are there to record Coast Guard search-and-rescue efforts.
Since the fourth-season premiere of “Catch,” the economy has taken a nosedive. A good chunk of the economic woes comes from individuals and companies taking financial risks in hopes of getting big gains but instead winding up deep in a hole.
If anyone knows about taking big risks to get big rewards, it’s crab fishermen. They gamble with their equipment and their lives to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.
“Risk, reward,” Hansen says, “it’s a lot of timing involved. But at the same time, if you’re sincere about it, you’ll see your ups and downs, but it usually levels out at the end if you stick to it and work.
“There are guys that want to come up and take the gravy — sure, anybody can go up and try to do it. But it’s the guys that have it in their hearts; it pays off for them.
“They do the salmon charter; they do the cod fishing. They do whatever they can do to stay busy for the year. Those are the guys — full-time fishermen.”
Hansen is working with his greenhorn, Jake, to help him sort out his taxes, learn not to blow his first paycheck and put something away for retirement.
“We’re trying to lay that groundwork for him,” Hansen says.
Told he could do seminars for independent contractors, Hansen says, “Sure, in addition to my day job, I should go to the auto builders and shake them up a little. They need to roll up their sleeves a little bit.”
Hansen recalls the advice he used to get as a youngster from older Norwegian ship captains.
“Those were the ones that I looked up to,” he says, “but also had to live up to. I can remember them saying, ‘Just be stubborn. Don’t ever quit.’
“So you’ve just got to stay motivated, roll up your sleeves and stay stubborn.”
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