is back tomorrow night. Sig is da man!

can't wait!

Time Bandit is my favorite boat.

Sig and Edgar are cool guys.

Keith has always seemed like a whiny ***** to me.

Sig is my hero, and yes, Keith is a whiny *****.

Cant wait.

thumbs up for the Northwestern. Sig is money

In this order:

Time Bandit (Jonathon just seems like a really good guy).
Northwestern (CANNOT deny Sig's talent!)
Cornelia Marie (Phil is just a lovable mean ole *******).

Agree that Keith (and brother) is a whiner.

[This message has been edited by Say Chowdah (edited 4/14/2009 3:08p).]

Is Phil the one that had the blood clot at the end of last season?

Yes. He will be back according to the website. It doesn't mention whether there are any new boats joining the show or not.

Time Bandit seems like it would be the funnest boat to work on. They have a sauna.

I usually root for Capt. Sig, though. I don't know if it's slight cross-eyed expressions or what, but he just cracks me up.

holy **** that opening preview of the season looked ****ing crazy

BTW there was some special on today about crab fishing. (Not related to the show.)

They showed Sig's dad losing a ship in a pretty wicked storm. Chunk of ice took out the rudder and they started drifting into the coast. His father and the chief engineer got washed over and thankfully the helicopter managed to pluck them out in time.

great first episode. Love seeing the Hilstrands all over the MF'in crab early, and thoroughly enjoyed Keith getting 4 keepers in his first 5 test pots!

Sucks that he hit his head when he dove below the ship though.

Sucks Phil had to leave right before they left.

We'll see what the Hansen's haul in next episode.

off to a good start, and yes, that preview at the beginning was the ****!

for those who know or don't know, we have a poster here by the name of birdman who fished out there for several years and has done crab fishing out of Dutch Harbor, and knows some of the guys featured. On the DC thread on the Outdoors board a few years back, he told great stories...

birdman, if you're out there, don't hesitate to explain things or tell more stories as each episode passes!

birdman's stories are great

I used to hate Keith also, but really he's damned good, but just like a tough boss to work for. He was dealt with a ****tay rook last year (Moi) and that woulda drove most of us crazy too.

Andy and Jonathan though are awesome. Hilarious that Andy is the only somewhat normal guy on all the boats.

I'm around.

First episode was pretty good. Typical opener. I was kinda hoping they would add another boat or two. There's lots of interesting stories out there, no reason to always follow the same guys.

I guess I missed the preview. I didn't see anything outrageous.

Everytime I get the stupid irrational thought in my head saying "You could do this" I see something on that show reassuring me that no, no I couldn't.

Saw one last night with the guys working in 15 below with the water crashing on them. I have no idea how the hell you guys tough it through that.

personally, as a non smoker, my biggest challenge would be being stuck in the cabin with all the smoke

I agree that they should add a couple of new boats. Northwestern, Cornelia Marie and Time Bandit have been there since the beginning, but there have been others that have appeared like North American etc that they could see about bringing back.

Birdman, do you think the reduction could have something to do with the reduction in fleet size? I read that once they passed the new quota system the fleet reduced by over 100 boats and now it is primarily the largest boats who survived. I would still think that even with a reduced fleet they could find a couple more boats and crew willing to be filmed.

Anyone know of if Discovery Channel pays the crews and captains for being on there? I believe that Sig is a producer/technical advisor so he must get some coin but I wonder if anyone else gets anything other than fame.

oh im sure theyre gettin paid by Discovery...

plus thier all featured in the video games and merch which im sure they all get a cut of.

The reduction of fleet has nothing to do with lower number of filmed boats. The quota system happened before the series ever started. There are still well over 100 boats. You could find somebody willing to allow a film crew for a month. Discovery just decided to focus on same guys and same stories.

[This message has been edited by birdman (edited 4/15/2009 7:59a).]

What size boats did you work on? Thanks for posting on here. I didn't know we had a resident expert! Very cool!

definitely agree about the same guy/stories. I wish they'd follow a few of the same boats, but then go look around and find other boats/stories as well.

I'm upset they are only goin to show 4 boats this season...hopefully they add or replace a few different boats for Opi season.

you would think that checking those things under the boats would be a top priority before they left the harbor.

Great first episode. This show is awesome in HD. The filming crew gets such amazing shots of Dutch Harbor. I always enjoys the first and last episodes just so I can get to see Dutch Harbor in HD.

Time Bandit is gold. Those guys work hard and party hard.

birdman,

what years were you up there and did you just do crab or anything else (cod, pollock)? I was one of the "bad guys" you could say - an observer (Dec 1999 to Oct 2001), but never for crab. However I did work on some of the crab boats when they were killing time and went after cod, trying to make a little money before the season started (Bristol Mariner, Fierce Allegiance).


I absolutely love this show. And just so you don't think I'm full of sh**...

Damn! Missed episode one, I will set the DVR tonight to catch the re-run

When Sig was checking his radar saying that he was NE of where most of the boats where, if you noticed on the radar all of the different boats on the screen. I too wish they would keep the same guys, but add a few new ones also.

Fl_Ag - what is an observer? Is it what the name implies? Observer from fish and game to enforce limits?

The North Pacific/Bering Sea area has the most intense regulatory program out of the (if I remember right) five geographical areas that U.S. fisheries have been divided up into. The way they collect most of their data to regulate with is through observers onboard vessels and at the plants.

The observers go out on the trips and their main priorities are to collect data pertaining to catch (how much per haul/trip, where they're fishing at, target species data such as male/female, length, avg weight.); also record where the boat is fishing in regards to off-limits areas, etc.; any interaction with marine mammals/seabirds; then a whole list of lesser priorities. Basically while the crew is bringing fish onboard the observer is out on deck collecting random samples, for use in extrapolations to total haul weight and sex/length/weight data for the target species. They have no authority to make the crew do anything, that's reserved for NMFS enforcement, just observe and report. So it can put you in tough positions sometimes, for example when a captain suggests you not bother to go out on deck for actual measurements and instead just kick back in the galley and he'll tell you how much they caught. Or when you've found that a crew member has made a fillet of a protected species they aren't allowed to touch.

Crab species, herring, halibut, and salmon are regulated by the state of Alaska, so I didn't work on any of those boats - I worked strictly for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on boats fishing for everything else (cod, pollock, flatfish, etc.)

I'm not going to say our job was anywhere near as tough as the fishermen, but an observer who actually does their job correctly puts up with alot of the same tough conditions and grind. I put in my share of 18-20 hour days in sub zero weather.

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Are you still working for the National Fisheries in Florida? Sounds like a really interesting (yet demanding) job.

[This message has been edited by Say Chowdah (edited 4/16/2009 7:33a).]

nope, after spending a couple years in Alaska I spent three years as a zookeeper at Busch Gardens here in Tampa, and now am just a boring environmental consultant. There's a lot to love about the observer job, but also a lot to discourage you as you get older. Much more of a young, single person job.

Damn my job is boring.

ttt...

good episode last night. Hillstrands nailed the test string off a 7 hour soak...going to dump all their pots in one little area...

Cornelia Marie off to a TERRIBLE start, as is the Wizard. Keith appears to have bumped his head, nothing more(at this point--I could see him getting checked out when they make their first dump at Dutch Harbor and finding out he suffered a concussion)

Northwestern is doing average and Sig is working their ass off. Nothing earth shattering.

The storm was getting pretty wicked towards the end of the episode.

The KATMAI(I think that's how it is spelled) started sinking durin the storm 900 miles west of the crab boats. It's a cod boat and had 11 crew members. Took the rescue chopper 7 hours to reach it.

They recovered 1 body in a survival suit, and considering Discovery had it blurred, we can assume that was a life lost. The teaser by Mike Rowe was that "10 other members of the KATMAI are fighting for their lives" so there is hope they are still out there and could be rescued in next week's episode.

I'm becoming a big fan of Mike Fourtner.

quote:

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so there is hope they are still out there and could be rescued in next week's episode.

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It happened in October. I was suprised to see the camera crews following the coast guard. I can't imagine what's going through your head when the ship is going down and you know you're 7 hours away from help by plane.