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When is the season crab fishing In what's being called the 21st century gold rush, the Bering Sea pits intrepid fishermen against bad weather, rough seas and dangerous conditions. The season is short and lasts only less than a week, and the competition is very high. Each year the Bering Sea claims the lives of an average of twelve fishermen, and crabbing is the most dangerous of all fishing methods, and perhaps the most dangerous of all dangerous professions in the world.
Why do people fish for crabs? And everything is as simple as ever - this profitable business. King crab, king crab, Far Eastern crab, snow crab, opilio, and snow crab are considered quite exquisite delicacies all over the world.
Alaska is the farthest boundary North America. Most of those who come here for the short season crab fishing, they know in advance which crab catcher they will work on. The rest are looking for work locally. There is fierce competition among the few vacancies for deckhands, so you need to be quick so as not to be left behind. The crew of a crab fishing boat has its own approach to newcomers - they are called cabin boys. Many of them have no idea what they are getting into.
Crab fishing It requires enormous physical endurance, which is why it is considered a job for young people. Some people come to Alaska for adventure - a kind of sea romance; others want to prove to themselves that they can overcome all the difficulties and cope with difficult working conditions. Many young men may have a passion for success, but crab fishing in the Bering Sea it will take more than a lot of desire.
By the way, for many Alaskans, crab fishing is a family business, where experience is passed on from generation to generation.
The crab fishing season officially opens; its period is not always the same and may be limited by catch quotas. So in 2005, government quotas amounted to 7,000 tons, and 25 years ago the quota was 45 thousand tons. In 2004, the crabbing season lasted only four days.
The key to maximizing profits is preparation, so before going to sea, traps and stacks are secured, equipment and devices are checked, and the captain carefully studies the upcoming weather conditions. In the Bering Sea, mistakes and miscalculations can have dire consequences.
When they leave the port, they feel like they are part of the history of this region. Fishing has been taking place in the waters surrounding Alaska for several centuries. The first people here were in sealskin canoes, but modern crabbing came in early XIX century. Modern Alaskan villages have now become the main ports for the supply and processing of seafood, as well as the transportation of crabs to various countries around the world. But this status comes at a high price. Dozens of crosses look out over the water of the bays - a grim reminder of those who did not return. The Bering Sea is unpredictable and merciless. Storms here occur every 3-5 days. Severe storms arrive without warning, bringing hurricane-force winds, strong waves and deadly ice, so it's no wonder many crabbers are superstitious.
crab fishing boats
world's largest crab fishing boat
Small crab fishing vessels, with an average length of 35 m, face a long cruise to crab fishing areas. Some travel 650 km across the Bering Sea in search of crabs. Each crabber captain has his own strategy. No one knows how long the season will last, and during this time we must do the impossible - find crabs and ensure a decent catch. And all this under the most severe conditions. Working in Arctic waters dangerous, but on crab fishing vessels it is perhaps the most dangerous of them, since there are no safe places on deck.
crab fishing methods
Upon reaching the fishing area, ship captains complete the calculations of their strategies for crab fishing, the deckhands are ready to start setting crab pots, the cabin boy is crushing the bait, filling the trap bags with it. Every member of the team is looking forward to catching crabs.
When the National Department of Game and Fisheries signals the beginning of the crabbing season, the first thing crabbers do is dump crab pots with bait inside into the sea. On small crab fishing vessels the number of traps does not exceed 40 pieces, but on some crab catchers their number reaches up to 250.
In fact ways to catch crabs A little. One of them is when the trap is installed on a dump pan. Bait is hung inside it, the trap is closed and thrown into the sea. A cable with a buoy is attached to the trap. The cages are displayed on an area of up to 100 square meters. kilometers in the so-called order, from several tens.
One more crab fishing method is radio fishing. Several ships form an alliance and disperse to different points, setting up orders of traps. Then the captains transmit to each other by radio the necessary data on crab exploration, using code words, without naming the names of the vessels and coordinates.
After some time, the crab catchers raise their traps, but first they must be caught. To do this, team members cast a grappling anchor with a cable attached to it in the direction of a buoy floating on the surface of the sea. A free-floating trap is attached to the buoy. Having hooked the cable with an anchor, the buoy is pulled to the lifting device. A cable is placed on the drum, which, when wound, lifts the trap. Then the trap is lowered onto a tray, where the catch is collected.
An important point when catching crabs is sorting. The law requires females and small crabs to return to the sea to reproduce. A male crab differs from a female crab by the presence of inside shell plate where the eggs are located. A male for legal crab fishing must be at least 17 cm across the carapace. Sorting of crabs is carried out on a two-hundred-kilogram table, which can be moved to the side using a hydraulic device.
Crab fishing off the coast of Alaska
lowering a crab trap using a crane
lifting device
raising the trap
The crabs are shipped by several representatives of the crab processor, loading them into a basket that can hold about 1 ton of crabs. They manually fill these baskets one by one and send them on board to the recycler.
When catching 35 tons of crabs, each deck sailor will receive 16 thousand US dollars.
The crabs that people risked their lives for are being processed and ending up on the dinner table in various countries peace. But few of those who enjoy the taste of Kamchatka crab will know about the severe struggle that several brave people enter into to bring them this delicacy.
more about crabs
king crab or red crab costs 11 US dollars per 1 kg. The quota is 7,000 tons, meaning the entire catch will be worth $70 million. Opilio crabs and snow crabs go at a price of 4 dollars per 1 kg, at stake is a catch of 36 million dollars with a quota of 9000 tons.
The Project 17003 vessel is intended for crab fishing in remote areas of the World Ocean using conical crab traps, processing crab into frozen products, storing and delivering processed products to receiving and transport refrigerators at sea using cargo booms in sea conditions up to 5 points inclusive, or transporting them to the port. The vessel has the ability to receive fuel, supplies and equipment at sea. The project is a sea vessel with ice reinforcements (ice 3), a diesel power plant, two-deck, with excess freeboard, an aft engine room and a superstructure offset forward from the midships, with a steering device, with an adjustable pitch propeller in a fixed nozzle, with a bow thruster.
The vessel is designed for the process of processing and freezing crab. The daily catch is about 35 tons. Freezing capacity up to 20 tons/day.
Vessel class KM µ Ice3 AUT1 REF Fishing Vessel
The navigation area is unlimited.
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
Length 55.0 m
Width 13.0 m
Speed in ballast at least 12 knots
Autonomy for fuel for at least 40 days, for provisions and lubricating oil for at least 90 days, without replenishment at the field
Total displacement about 1900 tons
Fuel reserves 400 m3, fresh water 30 m 3, technical water 60 m 3.
The hold capacity is at least 450 m3 (net), the temperature in the cargo hold is -28 0 C.
The crew is 30 people, accommodated in single and double cabins.
There is a sanitary cabin and a sauna on board the ship.
The vessel's operation is designed for the following environmental parameters:
Ambient air temperature: in winter “- 25 0 C”, in summer “+ 34 0 C”;
- sea water temperature: “0 0 C in winter”, “+ 30 0 C” in summer;
Cargo device:
The vessel is equipped with two cargo booms on the left and right sides with a lifting capacity of at least 3.0 tons each. The cargo device will provide operation at sea and in the port using the “telephone” method with an overboard boom reach of 5.0 m.
At the stern of the vessel there is a cargo crane with a lifting capacity at maximum reach of at least 2.5 tons.
Field/process deck equipment:
On the starboard side there is a provision for the installation of a hydraulic crab line selection machine with a capacity of at least 10 tons from a depth of up to 1000 m. A hydraulically driven winch is provided for lifting a trap weighing up to 1 ton to the sorting table;
In the stern on the left side there is a box for laying the line with a machine for pulling and laying the line;
The installation of a crab bait preparation machine with a hydraulic drive is provided;
In the transom area there is a continuous retractable closure with a hydraulic drive.
Main areas of operation:
Far Eastern fishery basin;
North-Eastern part Pacific Ocean(Bering, Okhotsk and Japan seas);
Pacific Northwest;
- Barencevo sea.
The lives of American fishermen are subject to simple laws, each of which is paid for in human lives.
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ALEUT. Aleut, like eight of his nine brothers and sisters, was born in the presence of a midwife instead of the required obstetricians. Aleut's name is Lenny Lekanoff and he is now 52 years old. The midwife delivered babies in the same way they had done in Alaska before 1867, when she was part of Russian Empire. Don’t Alexander II dare to cancel serfdom, the tsar would not have had to pay compensation to the landowners, there would have been no gaping hole in the budget, a loan from the Rothschild family of 15 million pounds sterling and the need to urgently repay the debt, it would not have occurred to the advisors of the Russian sovereign to sell one and a half million square kilometers of land that has not been properly surveyed . And the Orthodox Aleut Lenny Lekanoff could be called Leonid Lekanov, and he would have the Soviet coat of arms on his birth certificate, and a double-headed eagle in his current passport. But even then, Lenny would most likely be catching crabs in the Bering Sea, as he has been doing for more than a quarter of a century. Before that, he went salmon fishing - his family still dry-cures and salts salmon every year. The Aleut fishery has not changed much over the centuries. True, crabs cost more and more. Aleut Lenny Lekanoff is a deckhand on the crabbing boat Wizard. Lenny's smile is the first thing you see when you step on board.
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BERING SEA. The Bering Sea, bordered by the arc of the Commander and Aleutian Islands, splashes like an icy puck in the north Pacific Ocean, dividing Chukotka, Kamchatka and Alaska. The Anadyr and Velikaya rivers flow into it from the west, and the mighty Yukon - from the east. Up, to the north - the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea. To the southwest are the Kuril Islands, and beyond them is Japan.
In the summer in the waters of the Bering Sea up to +10 ºС, in winter up to -25 ºС, and the ice does not disappear from the surface 10 out of 12 months. However, in Bristol Bay, where American crab catchers scatter their cage traps, the ice in the fall is in those 5–6 Weeks when it is allowed to catch crab are practically non-existent.
The Dane Vitus Bering, who became an officer in the Russian fleet, explored the sea, which was then called Kamchatka, in 1728 and 1741, and one of the islands became his grave after a storm threw the "St. Peter" - the commander's packet boat - ashore and thereby doomed 75 team members to endure winter hunger and scurvy.
The Bering Sea always greets crabbers with storms. And in winter, during the snow crab fishing season, storms become icy, and the crew of each ship spends many hours every day chipping away the ice that freezes onto the ship - ton after ton. Captains try not to reach the boundaries of the ice fields, but sometimes the ice advances faster than they can pull out the traps.
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TYPES OF CRABS. Off the coast of Alaska, all sorts of crabs are caught - one might say, this is a real crab kingdom. And the blue crab (Paralithodes platipus), and the equal-spined crab (Lithodes aequispinus), and the snow crab, which the Americans call snow crab, or opilio, and the most important - the king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus with a spiked shell, living up to 15 years.
Alaska crab fishermen are required to have a license for each species of crab they intend to harvest. “It used to be a lot freer,” says Capt. Sig Hansen, co-owner of the Northwestern. - We spent 10–11 months at sea, catching brown crabs, blue crabs - whatever you want. Now everything is much more modest. If the vessel is equipped in such a way that it allows you to hunt for a variety of catches, you can fish 6-10 months a year. For example, we sometimes go for salmon in addition to crab. But compared to crabs, it’s an easy catch.”
Only males are allowed to be caught. The blue crab can weigh up to 8 kg, the distance between the tips of their claws reaches 1.5 m. Every October, the crab fishing fleet goes out to the Bering Sea for these beauties. It is a misfortune for a crab boat captain to haul out pots full of females and young ones. This can be seen immediately - they are noticeably smaller. You calculated everything correctly, you found a herd at the bottom, the cage rises full, but you must empty it overboard. And so on, perhaps dozens of cells in a row. Time is running in vain, the bait is gone, the exhausted crew of the ship is working in vain. Females will not be accepted for processing, and a huge fine will be imposed on the owner. That's why the crabs fall overboard.
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MONEY. But first the ship needs to be repaired. Repair, purchase and load on board iron trap cages, each of which weighs about 400 kg. Purchase provisions for the entire team; a store receipt for $3,000 is common. Fill the fuel tanks with diesel fuel (up to 50,000 gallons, that is, under 190,000 liters), into the tanks - 30 tons of fresh drinking water. Load bait onto the vessel: 3–4 tons of frozen mackerel and herring meat in briquettes and fresh cod carcasses sprinkled with ice. Every day a ship is at sea costs $7,000–$8,000, and that's just operating expenses. “You see my new faucet? asks Keith Colburn, Wizard's captain. - It cost $140,000. Need a new pump? 8000 dollars!
All the money here is crazy. Fishermen sell crab to factories for $16–18 per kilogram. A deckhand can earn from $20,000 to $50,000 per poutine: in addition to their salary, they are entitled to a prize share of the total catch. Newcomers spending their first season at sea receive a fixed amount. However, according to the general decision of the team, if a newcomer worked well, he can be rewarded with a percentage of the profit. After a successful trip to sea, the ship can bring a catch worth $200,000–$400,000 to a fish processing plant.
And after the Discovery Channel show "Deadliest Catch" glorified the work of a crabber, savvy owners now have other ways to make money. The Hansen family, owners of the Northwestern, registered a trademark and now produces fish sticks, beer, fish sauces, workwear and even video games. Moreover, the Hansens managed to “stick” their ship into the cartoon “Cars 2”. “We managed to capitalize on the name of the ship,” captain Sig Hansen nods affirmatively, “although we could have simply rented ourselves out, turned the ship into an attraction. I had a man come to me who was willing to pay $30,000 just to spend a week at sea with us. Just sit in the control room and watch us work. I sent him."
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FOOD. Before going to sea, fishermen load a huge refrigerator to capacity with food. But during fishing they have little time to eat. They satisfy their hunger with coffee and cigarettes. The amount smoked at sea is counted not in packs, but in blocks. They eat if they have a free minute. When a ship reaches a place where crab stocks are gathering, when one full trap after another rises from the sea and real money slides off the sorting table into the holds, there is no time. It happens that sailors eat once a day, when the cells are selected, the ship moves to another fishing spot and someone remembers that after yesterday's breakfast it is time for today's lunch.
The crab fisher's diet is an anorexic's nightmare. They eat everything and in gigantic quantities. Huge hamburgers, buckets of potatoes, scrambled eggs from a dozen eggs and unimaginable calorie omelettes with ham and cheese. Mounds of fried bacon and potatoes. Piles of vegetables and stacks chocolate bars. The main courses are eaten with pizza, sandwiches and bread. Anything that can be quickly prepared or as a last resort heated in the galley and containing maximum calories, everything goes to work. A fisherman’s daily diet can reach 6000–8000 kilocalories. And I didn’t see a single fat man there.
AND
WOMEN. They are rare on crab fishing vessels. Alaskan fishermen believe that women make the sea angry, and are ready to immediately give a bunch of examples of why they should not be taken with them and how their stay on the poutine could end. Someone on the very first voyage during a storm will receive several injuries, someone will be afraid of bad weather and cry with fear as soon as the sea becomes harsh, that is, every day, and someone will not return to the shore at all, dying along with most of the team. The daughter of the captain of the "Aleutian Ballad" Nicole, Rogneda, whom relatives took as a deck sailor on the "Leader of the West", Vanessa from the "St. Patrick" - the crab fishermen are ready to list and list names. But, on the other hand, Donna Kvashnik sailed with her husband for many seasons on the Maverick. And she was the fishermen’s own mother, and woke them up after short nap, and cooked home-cooked food for the men - and nothing.
“Yes, it’s unfortunate to have a woman on a ship,” says Captain Bill Wichrowski, “but that’s not the point. Catching crabs is rough, hard work. Not all men can handle it. What are women supposed to do here?
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PROHIBITIONS. Sig Hansen, captain of Northwestern: “Fighting is prohibited on board. When we are at sea, we work. If you need to sort things out with someone, wait until they arrive at the port. I also don’t like it when the team starts discussing how great fishing we’re going to do. I prohibit these conversations. Go and do your job. It is forbidden to dissipate. I once hired a bartender I knew for a season, he was a healthy guy, I thought he could handle it. But he couldn’t stand it. All I heard from him: when will we eat, and when will we sleep? I kicked him to hell."
“Drinking on board is strictly prohibited,” says Elliot Nees of Rambling Rose, the youngest captain in the fleet. - A simple rule, two words: alcohol is prohibited. Go ashore and do whatever you want. We're all relaxing on the beach. But on the ship there is prohibition.”
TO
QUOTA. Until 2004, crab was caught in a race. The government set the total volume of blue and king crab allowed for catching, and on the same day, at the same hour, two and a half hundred vessels rushed into the sea in order to catch more than their rivals in a fair fight. The winners could become fabulously rich, while the losers went broke. The system was changed in 2005 by introducing IFQ - an individual catch quota. Of the entire crab fishing fleet, about 90 vessels were retained, and each received its own quota. All eight captains with whom I spoke personally said that they longed for the old days. “I’ve been fishing for 20 years, since 1991,” Captain Keith Colburn looks straight into his eyes. - Now I miss the old feeling of a race, an honest male competition, when more than two hundred ships at the same time leave the harbor like an avalanche and rush for luck. I miss the adrenaline and competition. It is not included in the current quota system.” Previously, crabbers had 4-5 days to catch blue crab and 18-20 days to catch snow crab. Now they catch their quota in 5-6 weeks without haste.
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TRAPS. A crab trap is a parallelepiped cage. The ribs are a steel frame, the planes are a durable nylon mesh. Each trap weighs from 250 to 400 kg. Northwestern takes with it up to 200 such cages, Wizard - one of the largest ships in the flotilla - up to 250. Inspectors strictly ensure that captains do not take more traps than required from a safety point of view: when all the cages are on deck, the center of gravity is too high. This is how Big Valley turned over and died: they took 55 traps instead of the allowed 31. In winter, the situation is even more dangerous - the traps freeze over and become covered with ice.
Before release, the trap is moved to a hydraulic table. Deckhands must open the cage within a few minutes, slide inside and hang bait on a hook: a net with frozen fish crumble and a large piece of fresh cod for scent. Then the trap closes, the buzzer sounds, the table tilts and the cage flies out to sea, carrying the line with the buoy on top. It lies on the bottom at a depth of 100 to 200 m and lies there from several days to a week.
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MOTORCYCLES. Harley jackets are the first thing that catches your eye when you see the captains of crabbing boats on the shore. A good half of them ride motorcycles. I have a chopper and I feel like I am among my comrades. Captain Jonathan Hillstrand has a Harley. Captain Scott Campbell has a Harley. Captain Phil Harris, now deceased, also had a Harley, which his children inherited - they now sail on their father's boat.
Where can I see your helmet? “I would buy a home,” I ask in the middle of the conversation.
If you ride a motorcycle, why the hell do you need a helmet? - Jonathan, captain of the Time Bandit, grumbles. He's about two meters tall, and he's wiry, drunk and angry. I don't immediately come up with an answer. - I live in Moscow, there are four million cars there, and a considerable part of the drivers are dangerous psychos. This time. It's damn cold here at the beginning and end of the season. That's two. And outside the city there were so many stones on the roads that without a helmet I somehow got punched right through my lip.
Well, that’s why we sit down for motz, isn’t it? - Contempt can be heard in Jonathan's voice.
Look at the Harley store, it’s a few blocks from here,” Scott Campbell offers conciliatoryly. - We almost never wear a helmet.
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BEGINNERS. Greenhorn is a nickname for deckhands who are new to a ship. The word “cabin boy” is not very suitable here, but the familiar Russian ear “new guy” is quite suitable. They have the hardest job - preparing the bait: passing frozen fish briquettes through a grinder, filling the nets with bait, cutting up the cod and stringing it onto hooks. Stink. Pervasive fishy stench. Erik Abrahamson, a newbie, complained: "Working with bait is like being in the belly of a seagull and living there for 3-4 days." Until all the traps are reset, the new guy should work like an automatic machine, without breaks or smoke breaks. Few people stay after the first season. Greenhorns have to hire new ones every year. “We try to take people we know. Or the children of friends. Or distant relatives. So that there is at least some kind of recommendation, says Captain Keith Colburn. - But newcomers still leave. At first they are excited, they hear that they can make 25,000 in six weeks, and they say: “I want it!” And after a week or two of fishing, they don’t want to stay here even for 125,000. They can’t feel their fingers, their hands go numb from working. And then you hear: “I haven’t slept for two days, I haven’t eaten for a week - I’m leaving!”
It is a rare greenhorn that becomes a real deckhand. Among such exceptions, for example, is the Samoan Freddie Mogatai, who has been working furiously and with full dedication since the very first fishing season. Freddie could pray right on the deck, bite off the head of a herring, smear his face with fish blood - he followed any sign and performed any ritual, as long as they promised good fishing.
ABOUT
TREATMENT. From the holds of the ship, Kamchatka crabs are unloaded onto fishing bases or to fisheries receiving crab on the shore. The hatches open and cages are lowered into the holds. Between such a cage and the crane hook there are scales. The cage is filled manually and weighed as it is lifted. The count is carried out by both the ship's crew and the plant workers. The king crab then enters the production line. The spiky giants are spread out on the tape, their limbs secured with metal clamps. The tape goes to the knives. The crab's life ends here.
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LOSSES. The largest disaster occurred in 1799: then a storm sank 60 boats, killing more than 200 Alaskan fishermen.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today officially recognizes crabbing as the most dangerous occupation in America. The number of deaths among crabbers - more than 300 per 100,000 workers per year - is double the rate for the fishing industry as a whole. It is estimated that a crabber's risk of dying on the job is 90 times higher than that of an ordinary worker. The water temperature in the Bering Sea is near freezing, and the shock of falling into the icy water can cause a heart attack. In the event of falling overboard, a sailor dressed in ordinary uniform has one or two minutes to live. Then the body cools down in the icy water, and death occurs from hypothermia.
Kevin Davis fell overboard in 2004. The whole team, including the captain, saw the fall. Kevin was instantly thrown a lifeline, and he had enough strength to cling to it. He was in the water for less than two minutes, with a wave of 15 m and a wind of 100 km/h. Lucky Kevin survived. It is a rarity. According to statistics, one crabber sailor dies every week while fishing. Large crashes often occur. St. Patrick, 1981: out of 11 sailors, nine died. Big Valley, 2005: only one of the six team members was saved. Ocean Challenger, 2006: one of four survived. Alaska Ranger, 2008: five killed. Katmai, 2008: seven died, the bodies of two were never found. A special protective suit will prevent you from drowning and will protect you from the cold for a while. But it’s impossible to work in this suit, which means you have to have time to put it on if the ship is sinking. Rarely does anyone succeed.
WITH
COURTS. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, during the crab gold rush, when the catch reached almost 100,000 tons, four ships a month left the shipyards. Previously, in the sea you could find both a tiny 12-meter-long crab catcher and a 70-meter giant. Today the spread is not so great, usually a crabbing vessel is a ship 30–50 m long, 8–10 m high, with a gross tonnage of up to 500 register tons. There are also two engines, like on the Time Bandit - diesel engines of 425 hp each. With. each, and one, as on Wizard - with a capacity of 1125 hp. With. By the way, Wizard is a former military ship: it was built in 1945 and was part of the US Navy until 1974. To operate hydraulics, that is, all power equipment, hydraulic pumps are used; Time Bandit has two of them, 125 kW each. The fishermen sleep in cramped and not very well-equipped cubicles. The bunks usually have edges. Among the amenities, in addition to latrines, there is a shower, and on the already mentioned Time Bandit there is even a sauna, but fishermen cannot wash or steam while fishing: there is no time.
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TOXINS. Caught crabs are stored in special ship storage facilities - holds with circulation sea water. To prevent the crabs from crushing each other when rocking, such storage facilities are separated by bulkheads. A dead crab in the hold poses a huge threat to the entire catch. The toxins released from his body after death begin to poison the crabs nearby. Happening chain reaction death, and then, moored to a factory or floating base, the crew will only helplessly watch as thousands and thousands of dead animals are sent to a landfill. The same misfortune can happen due to a fish or octopus accidentally falling into the hold with the catch and dying there. Until the bottom of the vault is exposed and the last cage of live goods rises from the hatch, not a single captain of a crab fishing vessel knows exactly how successful the voyage was.
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FANS. Until 2005, the American crabber's profession was simply the most dangerous work, and only relatives and close friends “rooted” for them. After the Discovery Channel aired the first season of Deadliest Catch, this profession also became one of the most popular. “Our work has suddenly become very attractive,” Captain Sig Hansen says harshly. - Do you know how many letters I now receive with the same text “take me”? They don't even try to find out the address, they simply write: "Ship Northwestern, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to Captain Whitefish." It happens that people simply arrive, appear at the gangway with huge backpacks and ask to board the ship. For some it is a way to become famous, for others it is a desire to assert themselves. I send people like that to... It's not a show, it's hard work. But I don’t think people understand that.”
Over the years, crab fishermen have gained many fans. Thousands of people come to the annual CatchCon show in Seattle. For the most part these are American housewives, women over forty. However, there are enthusiasts from Canada, Europe, South America and even from Australia. It takes them about 24 hours to get to Seattle with transfers so that they can join the line at the convention center where CatchCon is taking place at an ungodly hour. There is no point in this queue: everyone already has an entrance ticket in their hands. But they spend the night in front of the entrance, talking with each other and waiting for their idols, who suddenly turned from ordinary crab fishermen into world-famous TV stars.
Sh
SHOW. The official part of the CatchCon show for sailors is communication with international press, interviews, buffets, endless photography with fans and signing autographs. The ships are scrubbed to a shine, the hatch covers are filled with tens of kilograms of salt: it fills the technological holes so that a careless visitor does not break his leg if he gapes. The opportunity to see with your own eyes (and if you’re lucky, to touch with your own hands) the main characters of the famous “Deadliest Catch”, semi-children’s competitions and quizzes, the chance to step on the deck of a crab fishing vessel, unusually quietly and peacefully standing at the pier - all this brings fans of the show into indescribable delight.
So one day passes and another, and then the official part ends and the completely unofficial part begins. The hotel bar, where everyone can go, is not overcrowded. Lenny Lekanoff doesn't seem to drink. With a childish, bewildered smile, he glances around at the seething crowd. Sig Hansen, a favorite of TV viewers, sits at a table surrounded by housewives screaming with delight and trying to touch him. Keith Colburn sedately sips his ice-cold beer, not too concerned about making sure his answers to fans are heard above the general hubbub. Samoan Freddie deftly hugged two fans at once, each of them twice his size, and whispered something in the ear of one or the other.
The fishermen are clearly enjoying this party, the finale of the show. For them, this is a rare moment of recognition for both themselves and their work. A job that previously, just six years ago, did not promise any of them any glory, but only the icy Bering Sea, hunger, cold, injuries, deaths, storms and the illusory hope of one day getting rich.
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