http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/crab-fishing-in-the-bering-sea.html#more-572 Crab fishing in the Bering sea By Spooky on February 28th, 2008 Category: Animals, Events, Pics LIKE DISLIKE Share This is one of the most difficult professions I’ve ever seen, I remember seeing a series of documentaries on it but the sea didn’t look as cold as it does in theses photos. I mean much of the ship is frozen stiff, yet those guys are out there, soaking wet trying to catch as many crabs as possible and ensuring they get a fat paycheck. I can’t imagine lasting one day doing something like that, I mean I have trouble with getting in the water, during the summertime, during the summer, how could I handle the frozen waves of the Bering sea? Respect! Photos by Corey Arnold of www.coreyfishes.com ==================== http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=4887111&page=1 ABC News Nightline Man vs. Nature: Crab Fishing in the Bering Sea The Men Made Famous by the Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch' 5 comments By PETER IMBER and CHRISTINA CARON SEATTLE, May 19, 2008 PrintRSS Font Size: Share: EmailTwitterFacebook More FarkTechnoratiGoogleLiveMy SpaceNewsvineRedditDeliciousMixx Yahoo 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. Deadliest Catch The difficult-to-catch Alaskan king crab yields big profits, but only if fishermen can overcome dangerous obstacles. (The Discovery Channel ) 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. Sea Stars 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. But unlike any other television show, if one of these guys gets killed out of the plot, it would be for real. Deadliest Catch Frigid weather is only one of the hurdles Alaskan king crab fishermen face. (The Discovery Channel ) They all know fishermen who have died. When a boat sank, cameras were with the Coast Guard for a rescue that recovered only one man. The survivor spoke while sitting next to the body of a crewmate. It's about physical stamina and character under pressure. "A lot of guys that come up there just looking for an adventure, don't succeed. Guys that come up there just looking for the money usually don't make it," Colburn said. "They need a little bit of everything to really make it and want to do it. That's really hard to find, actually." Filming Under Dangerous Conditions It's Shakespeare on the sea, brother against brother. It's deckhands competing for jobs and money. And it's about the weather: Waves the size of office buildings, snow and ice that builds so thick it'll turn a boat upside down. And always, it's about guys who are willing to do this. "Fishing's a blast, man," Hansen said. His brother was quick to qualify, "Well, pain is misery." "Look," Hansen said. "We're lucky to be dumb enough not to know any better, so if that's all you know, you make it fun. And if you can't have fun doing it, don't do it." The show puts two cameramen on a ship where there's not much room for two extra men. One of them showed where he slept, under the wheelhouse stairs with the coffee cans. They use lockdown cameras for wide shots, point-of-view cameras strapped to the equipment, while the cameramen roam the wheelhouse and the deck. So, the cameras were there when a deckhand mashed his finger and when another broke his ankle. They were also there when Edgar Hansen was hit in the head with a swinging steel hook. "So, I had everybody in my viewfinder, and when that happened, I'm right on Edgar when he dropped to the ground, so it really worked out well that time," cameraman Eric Lange said. "Always keep rolling, always keep rolling." Fishermen Until the End People watch the show and think they know these guys. Harris says, "That's what people most of the time think, at least for me, that I'm always mad. And I'm never mad and I never yell." That got a big laugh from his fellow captains and Sig Hansen, who added, "And we never drink!" They do have a natural charm. Women are after them now, and so are advertisers. Harris has his own brand of coffee now, called "Deadliest Blend." As for Hansen, he's been approached by a mattress company. "They wanted me to do a mattress commercial, and I said no way. I'm not going to do a mattress commercial," he said. Colburn chuckled, "Why would they have a fisherman who's never in his bunk ... I don't get that." Their lives have been changed, but their lives are also the same. One thing they know for certain: Just like good years of fishing, and bad, all this attention will one day end. Then it will be back to the Bering Sea, where once again, they will be the only ones watching. =============== http://ezinearticles.com/?Danger-in-the-Bering-Sea---Crab-Fishing&id=2073476 Ezine articles King crab is renowned for its rich, succulent taste and soft, tender texture. It's prized by hordes of seafood connoisseurs around the world as a delicacy. Lately, with the popularity of the reality TV show, 'Deadliest Catch' the extreme dangers of crab harvesting have captured the public's imagination. This is one tough job. King crab season lasts a few very short months, and many crab catchers are limited to fleeting windows of time, some as short as four days, in which they can actually try and make a catch. The price for such fine tasting seafood is a high one, but it's quite rewarding. This article takes a look at the art of catching them. King crab fishing is carried out during the winter months off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial harvest is actually done within a very limited time period and from there the catch is shipped all over the world. The most popular crab season occurs between the months of October and January; in fact, technically, there are several seasons in Alaska, but the largest is the one that takes place in Bristol Bay. Here, fishers target the red king crab variety, which is regarded as the top of them all amongst the three commercially harvested species within the state. The other two species are blue king crab, found in the waters off St. Matthew Island and the Pribilof Islands, and the golden king crab, which is caught off the shores of the Aleutian island chain. There is a fourth variety, the scarlet king crab, but it is too rare and small for commercial fishing. There are strict size requirements; only certain types of crab can be fished during specific periods of the year. Crabbers are imposed stiff quotas, which if violated, mean heavy fines. During the season, fishermen face an extremely difficult task. They have to venture out in dangerous, cold and often turbulent waters; they work 20-hour shifts, and have to contend with flaring tempers, and life threatening situations. Alaskan crab fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. In fact, US Coast Guard rescue squads are stationed near the crab fishing grabs and often have to rescue crabbers who have fallen into the sea due to harsh weather conditions during king crab season. Crabs are actually caught in 'pots' which look like large cages. These are dropped into the sea one after another in a line covering dozens of miles. Each pot is connected to a colored buoy, which marks the drop off point. As the pots weigh at least 800 pounds, one of the most dangerous aspects of the job is hauling them back in after a period of about 24-48 hours. King crab season is a hectic time for these crabbers, but the payoff is worth it. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has accurate, up to date information on the fish species off the coast of the most northern state. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allie_Moxley =============== http://deadliestreports.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/crab-fishing-as-a-story/ Deadliest Reports Crab Fishing From a Few Years Ago Posted on April 29, 2007 by opilia There are many who’ve been fascinated with king crab fishing and the fishermen who do it. One such individual is Karen Ducey, writer and photographer. I ran into her galley of photos on the National Geographic website and understood right away that her pictures tell a remarkable story of Bering sea fishermen. In order to deepen her own understanding of this subject, Karen Ducey spent three years at sea during crab season(1993-1995), so I have no doubt that her photographs and captions were very carefully chosen. Please use the links provided to view her gallery on the National Geographic website. Sea Santa Santa Claus climbing out of a chimney? No, a deckhand emerging from the hold of a fishing boat that sells cod bait to crabbers in port. “I shot this photograph of Dennis Scholl in February 1993 on the Sea Spider in Dutch Harbor, Alaska,” says Ducey. “He was preparing for a fishing expedition by hosing ice into a dark, empty hold. He had one of the hardest jobs of anyone I met; at sea he would slip vertically down a hatch wide enough for a codfish or a ray of light. During long, lonely evenings Scholl shoveled ice around codfish and stacked them. As rough seas pounded the boat, heavy codfish would sometimes drop down the hatch on top of his head.” “Aleutian Stare” “Aboard the deck of the Big Valley, I was transfixed by the glassy eyes of Eric Grumpke and Barbara Stanwyck, star of the television show that is the boat’s namesake. Grumpke drove the crane that shifted gear and equipment on deck,” says Ducey. “Daylight begins at around 10:30 a.m. during Opilio crab season. The sun barely comes above the horizon before it begins its retreat back below the surface. Arctic nights last 18 hours. Our eyes adjust to the long winter nights, creating a glassy-eyed crew. The “Aleutian stare” is a common affliction everyone gets as a result of fatigue and being in this empty, gray world for indefinite periods of time.” Heart failure killed Grumpke only 19 days after this picture was taken. http://divaboo.info/Crab_fishing/ DivaBoo Info (where the pictures came from) ============