My Deadliest Catch Expe You might have seen that show on the Discovery Channel called Deadliest Catch. It takes place in the mass of water between Russia and western Alaska called the Bering Sea. The show features crab boat captains and their crews working these perilous waters.
Many of you know that I grew up in Alaska. Some of my close friends growing up are still there today running fishing boats. It’s a dangerous profession. Every year fishing boats capsize and fishermen lose their lives in accidents.
My father was once saved by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter when the boat he was working lost its engines and almost sank.
I never worked on a crab boat in the Bering Sea. Those guys are nuts. But I did work one summer on a fishing boat in Bristol Bay, which is in the Bering Sea but closer to shore. Instead of crab, we fished for salmon. Bristol Bay is home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.
The fishery in Bristol Bay should have its own TV show. My summer there was literally like going back in time to the Wild West.
There are four reasons why this fishery gets so crazy:
1. There are no docks or ports, so to get to shore you literally have to beach your boat at high tide and be ready to leave when the tide goes out. There is no infrastructure, no towns to speak of—you are literally in the middle of nowhere.
2. Because the native people still fish those waters, Fish and Game implemented rules that boats cannot be bigger than 32 feet. For the past few decades, boats have been constructed specifically for this fishery. They’re 32 feet long, but really wide, to allow as much deck space as possible. They’re built like tanks— metal boats that can withstand collisions, accidental groundings, and the harsh conditions of Alaska.
3. Fish and Game regulates this fishery by designating lines in the sea past which boats cannot fish. They have boats that sit outside this designated line to make sure fishermen don’t break the rule. (I’ll come back to this in a minute.)
4. The bay where the fishing takes place is remarkably shallow. You often can’t see land, it’s so big—but much of the bay is less than 15 feet deep. Which means you can’t get big ships in there, and you have to be careful how you operate your vessel so you don’t run aground.
There were three of us onboard that vessel: the captain and two deckhands. I was offered the job after my first year at college. Since I spent most of my savings to pay for my first year of school, I was ecstatic to get the invitation. Deckhands often could make $20,000 or more in two months fishing in Bristol Bay. That was a lot of money. I didn’t really care what I had to do—I knew I couldn’t say no.
The other deckhand was a family friend. He was two years younger than I was, but he grew up in a fishing family. He had been commercial fishing since he was six years old. He was tough, fast, and skilled. I’m no slouch, but this guy was amazing. He could operate at a whole different speed than I could, even when I was giving everything I had.
The captain was a younger guy, maybe mid-30s. This was his first year as a captain in Bristol Bay. He had taken a huge financial risk by purchasing a boat and buying into the fishery. What we deckhands didn’t know was that he was also in pain. A lot of pain. He had blown a blood vessel in his brain while lifting weights, and therefore had horrible headaches which he self-medicated with hardcore painkillers. (More about this later in the story.)
We flew in to this village where the boat was located. The first 4