Before I arrived in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, I was warned plenty about getting seasick.
My goal when they hit one is to rip its head clean off… with my teeth.
Im successful in my quest, though the rip isnt quite as clean as Keith would like.
‘Wizard’ crew and Captain Keith Colburn cheer me on as I rip the herring in two.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
Naturally, he has to show me how its done himself, to cheers from the crew.
So for two days, Im getting put through the paces as a greenhorn, a.k.a.
the freshest meat onboard.
What you can’t see in this photo is the ground-up fish bits inside those buckets.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
Hence the herring, every greenhorns rite of passage on theWizard.
Hes talking about the Alaskan crab industrys switch in 2005 (just after theDeadliest Catchs inaugural season).
Under the quota system, boats are given a maximum theyre allowed to catch within a longer time frame.
I had to crawl into the pots to set them with bait.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
A low crab population caused fisheries to close for two years.
It’s like season 1 again.
Or as Keith puts it, The race for crab is back.
Captain Sig Hansen reminds me that weather conditions are usually much, much worse.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
Sig already scolded me for sitting cross-legged in the captains seat (Don’t embarrass me.
), and corrected my terminology (Youruna boat; youdrivea car.).
Now, he looks at me skeptically.
Those joysticks are so much more difficult than a videogame controller.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
You don’t want to hit that dock, right?
[The] industry is getting smaller.
It’s less boats that are fishing the same amount of crab.
I successfully avoided hitting any of my crew mates with the 750-lb. crab pot.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
But the changes to the crabbing industry dont seem to phase the team behindDeadliest Catch.
And to have that line up with the 20th anniversary is just awesome.
It’s serendipitous and we’re excited to make it the best one yet.
It’s called “line,” not “rope”!.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
After weve trudged inside once more so Sig can take over running the boat, the captain echoes Starr-Paul.
I want my daughter, I want my grandkids to do this, he says.
But you wont be able to keep Sig off the water.
Tossing the buoy was relatively easy compared to everything else I learned!.Original Productions/Discovery Channel
I think I’ll always go, he adds before recalling that very first season.
I was just happy to participate because it was showing the world what we were doing.
Twenty years later, and the world isnt only aware of what theyre doing, but invested.
And season 20 will deliver, Starr-Paul promises fans.
I don’t think we’ve ever had some of the events that we’ve had this past fall.
A greenhorn journalist decapitating a frozen herring is just the beginning.
