Sunday was a lazy day for my wife and I.  It was rainy, and I was still recovering from what I now believe to be a bout of food poisoning, so we were doing minimal work.  Just some light house cleaning.  While doing the laudry and such, we flipped the TV over to the Discovery Channel.  They were running a special on Krakatoa, probably the most violent volcanic eruption in recorded history (I find them fascinating).  After that went off, they brought on a show titled "The Deadliest Catch".

15 minutes into it, I was hooked! I did not realize at that time that they were doing a marathon on it (the last episode aired at 2am, and yes I sw it - but I did not see them all).  The show tracks 5 Alaskan Crab boats through the season of Crabbing, both for the Alaskan King, and the Opilia crabs.  It earns its name (the job) because of all the deaths associated with the trade.  These men (and the one woman) risk their lives from October to April fishing just below the artic ice pack for delacies that we gripe and moan and complain about paying such exhorbitant prices for.  Yet these guys risk their lives daily while doing this.

One quote on the show caught my attention "With a 100% injury rate".  Thankfully the mortality rate is less, and indeed in 2005, it was 0 for that year (the previous year, one of the boats was lost with only one survivor).  And indeed, on camera, there were several injuries, none life threatening, but one major.

This is my kind of reality show.  They have the camera crews on the boats themselves, so the filming crew is risking just as much as the crabbers.  But it was fascinating to watch them battling the weather, with up to 40 foot waves and 50 knot winds, to land some crabs.  And it is not cheap.  The boats cost millions of dollars, and the crab pots themselves (most boats carry 100-200 of them) cost a thousand dollars apiece and weigh 700-800 pounds - when not covered with ice.

You got to meet the captain and crew of 5 vessels - Maverick, Time Bandit, Northwestern, Rollo, and Cornellia Marie.  These men do not work 9-5 shifts, sometimes going 24, 36 or more hours straight to beat the weather and land their quota (yes, all those crabs have quotas).  And with the back breaking work, even a normal shift would be rough.

But they are paid well.  For one Season, the crew of the Northwestern (admittedly the best paid as they were the most productive) received about $80k each (the captain gets significantly more).  And it is pure capitalism as the pay is based upon the catch, not a daily rate (some do a daily rate, but not many, and not the big ones).

The show normally runs on Tuesday nights at 9pm.  I think I am going to put it on my must watch list.