I Like to Watch - Deadliest Catch

Imagine a job where you perform strenuous tasks, such as horsing around 1,300 pound steel cages, continuously for up to 48 hours at a time. After a short nap, you repeat the process. Add to that, you perform this work outdoors in temperatures near zero degrees, winds of over 50 mph, and you are drenched with water very often. Finally, your workplace is a pitching deck of a boat in waters so cold that if you fell in, you would die of exposure after only a few minutes.


This is the work environment documented by the Discovery Channel reality show called The Deadliest Catch. A captain and crew of 6 or so journey into the Bering Sea in search of crab. A good trip will last only 3 weeks and pay as much as $50k to each deck hand.


While the pay is pretty good, the suffering is immense. Each man is away from civilization and their family and at the mercy of hard driving captains and the severe weather found within the Arctic circle. Each crab fishing season, many deck hands will die or be severely injured. Most years, an entire fishing boat with crew will be lost at sea. The Deadliest Catch portrays this life in excruciating detail. Watching the show make you want to grab a blanket and get warm.


Over the years, the show has developed the different characters that serve as boat captains. Most are chain smoking, hard-hearted, tattooed, slave drivers who chug Red Bull, curse, and smoke their way across the Bering Sea's fishing grounds. While their environment is much warmer than the crew's, the hours are the same. In their role as Captain of the boat, they navigate the boat, determine where to fish, track the location and production of each "crab pot", supervise the deck hands and drive them to endurance not normally seen in any job.


This year's season has an added interest. One boat skipper, Captain Phil, has been on the show for many seasons. His character has become one of the favorites on the series. Two season's ago Captain Phil became ill with blood clots that reached his lungs. He was helicoptered from the boat to the nearest hospital, if you can call a small clinic with one doctor a hospital. There he almost died, but has recovered enough to retake the helm of his fishing boat. He with his 2 sons that serve as deck hands on the boat, are again fishing the cold waters of the Bering Sea.


Phil's health issue did not change his lifestyle, which could be best described as poor diet, low exercise, Red Bull and chain smoking addiction. All fans of the show have wondered how much a human body can take before completely breaking down. We are to find out soon.


In January of this year, Captain Phil suffered a massive stroke while on his fishing boat. He was airlifted to Anchorage Alaska where he died at the age of 53.


The show has yet to deal with the loss of a primary character. With the season winding down , they will very soon. The show has other characters of interest and will continue. The compelling story of The Deadliest Catch is enhanced, but not dependent on the characters. The story is about the brutally hard life of an Alaskan crab fisherman.