Deadliest Catch is a program on Discovery Channel which showcases real life tough guys battling out the icy and treacherous Bering Sea in order to prise from its cold depths two highly prized items meant for our plates – King Crabs and Opelio Crabs.
If you wish to see the heroic captain and crew of the Northwestern up close and share a gourmet dinner with them then The Salish Lodge & Spa dining room at Snoqualmie Falls is the place to be this Wednesday. The program which has announced four seasons of immense popularity will be back for a fifth season in 2008-2009.
The appeal of the program is easy to understand – especially amongst the vast majority of men whose only exposure to action is football on TV or watching a road rage incident while driving to work. Deadliest Catch is aptly named as crab fishing ranks as amongst the deadliest jobs in America. Other such jobs include timber cutting, truck driving and roofing.
Although crab fishing is a very lucrative proposition with tens of thousands of dollars to be earned for a few days work. However, the fatality rate for Alaskan crab fishermen is the highest in the United States, it is 300 per 100, 000 fishermen. The most common cause of death is drowning or hypothermia. Almost 100% of the crew of a fishing boat in the Bering Sea suffers some injury or the other. Busted knuckles and broken fingers are treated as occupational hazards.
Check out the two-story monster waves that Bering Sea crab fishers have to face.
