How Do ‘Deadliest Catch’ Stars Spend Their Crab Fishing Offseason?
How Do ‘Deadliest Catch’ Stars Spend Their Crab Fishing Offseason?
Ever since Deadliest Catch debuted on the Discovery Channel in April 2005, the series has seen some of the wildest, most treacherous real-life moments in television history, part and parcel of the Alaskan crab fishing industry it captures. Deadliest Catch centers around the lives of those aboard crab fishing boats on the Bering Sea, one of the world’s most dangerous occupations. Fishermen and camera crews alike are constantly on the edge of disaster as they brave the high waves and unpredictable winds of the Bering Sea to bring in hundreds of pounds of crab. It’s 3 months of camaraderie, rivalries, sorrow, joy, and stress, followed by 9 months of… what, exactly?
From ‘Deadliest Catch’ to Deadly Boring
Once the fishing vessels are docked for the offseason, the captains and their crew part ways, getting used to the terra firma beneath their feet and hanging out with the landlubbers. As Captain Keith Colburn tells it, the offseason days are the yin to the yang of the Bering Sea, a calm, relatively boring period of time. If you’ve been watching Season 20, you’ll know that it hasn’t been especially kind to the fast-tempered sea dog. At the start of the season, his fishing vessel, F/V Wizard, had a fire break out below deck, one which almost cost deckhand Tyler Gateman, the son of Colburn’s best friend, his life. Then, on the October 1 episode, viewers were witness to Colburn experiencing a terrifying cardiac event, prompting his brother, Captain Monte “Mouse” Colburn, to turn the Wizard around to get Keith medical attention. The medical emergency sidelined Colburn for the duration of the season, a probable mini-stroke that makes this offseason a little different from most.
Not that a normal offseason is likely to induce high-stress situations like the ones faced in the open water. In an interview with LAist, Colburn is quick to note that the offseason isn’t “6 months off,” as many people assume, but is filled with a lot of administrative work. There’s licensing, permitting, and prepping the boat for the next season. The politics of fishing and fisheries is something that Colburn and some of the others involve themselves in too, saying “You don’t just throw your line in the water and hope you catch something. There is a very complex set of regulations around the fishery.” At the time of the interview, Colburn had recently testified before Congress, a Bering Sea of politics if there ever was one, discussing the impacts offshore oil drilling could have on the fisheries around the Aleutian Islands.
‘Deadliest Catch’ Has Periods of Downtime, You Just Rarely See It
Politics and paperwork don’t have the appeal of near-death experiences on a daily basis fishing for crab, which is why the cameras only come on for the crabbing season. But then, not every minute of the fishing season is fraught with danger, either. Yes, the job is that dangerous and yes, there are very real dangers, but like any reality TV series, you’re only seeing what showrunners allow you to see. Captain Jack Bunnell admits as much, saying, “You got to make it exciting, somehow. What we do, hauling pots 24 hours a day, is boring.” Even the relentless, dreary weather isn’t always so bad, with the Seattle Times (per the previously cited Collider article) reporting a time when a member of the film crew was spraying a hose over Captain Sig Hansen, making it appear that foul weather was afoot (producers stated that on “very rare occasions, hoses are used to mirror the real-life conditions”).
Of course, the offseason does have its perks, part of the celebrity status afforded the captains of Deadliest Catch. On September 16, 2024, Captains Hansen, Colburn, Jake Anderson, “Wild” Bill Wichrowski, and Jonathan Hillstrand took on stars of the Star Trek universe on Celebrity Family Feud. In the battle of the ships of the seas versus the ships of the stars, Deadliest Catch reeled in the win, leaving the Star Trek crew a little… crabby. Maybe the offseason isn’t so bad!
