Deadliest Catch article in Men’s Journal Magazine, Part 1

Hello Fishies!

The April 2007 edition of Men’s Journal is on the stands now. On page 82 begins an article written by Bill Donahue about some of the captains and crews of the boats involved in the television show Deadliest Catch.

The Most Dangerous Game

Beneath the headline it reads:

“The hard-drinking crab fishermen of Dutch Harbor, Alaska – proud owners of the most dangerous job this side of Fallujah – are the surprise stars of Deadliest Catch, America’s wildest reality show. But have the TV crews come to praise these rugged men, or to bury them?”

Donahue begins with the story of Cache Seel and the sinking of the Big Valley, segueing into the popularity of the TV show. He states that this year the show should reach about 4 million viewers in this it’s third year. As Discovery Channel’s top rated show he finds no surprise that kids dress up as DC crabbers for Halloween. There is a bit of the history of the rationalization program as background for this article.

Last fall Donohue decided to “take the measure of the newly spawned stars of the Deadliest Catch,” and “see how an ancient industry us weathering the media age.” He flew into Dutch Harbor in October for “what is arguably the tensest moment of the king crab season: the prelude. Hundreds of crab fishermen were gathered in town preparing for the season as the cameras rolled: drinking and kvetching, drinking and mending crab pots, and drinking some more. And when the booze flows among fishermen, I learned, things can get pretty weird.”

He goes on to describe Dutch as a harsh place, noting the lack of trees and the relentless wind. The scenery he describes is that of discarded anchors, spools of old rope, and muddy tangles of fishing line scattered everywhere by the roadside. The figures he cites are already well known: 83 men died, out of less than 2,000 participating, in the crab seasons during the 1990’s. He gives this as the reasoning behind the “arcane superstitions” of the crabbers.

If you are die hard fans of Sig Hansen and John Hillstrand, stop reading now. The rest of the article ain’t pretty….

Donahue on being “granted an audience” with Sig Hansen while filming a scene for photo-shoot purposes: “But up close he isn’t quite the scruffy, unshaven hunk we see on TV; Hansen’s hair is thinning a bit, his skin is somewhat pasty, and while he isn’t exactly fat, it’s clear that his exercise regime involves a lot of sitting around in the wheelhouse, smoking Camels. He wore a wrinkled Hawaiian shirt, the collar open to reveal a gold necklace, and he seemed keenly cognizant that the circling camera crews held the power to shape his celebrity future.”

“Hansen needed no encouragement to keep talking. “I have people stopping me on the street,” he said as his boat steered itself on autopilot. “They recognize me just seeing my back. We have a fan base, and yeah, there’s been some opportunities.”

Later in the article: “Hansen is not exactly popular among his fishing colleagues, perhaps because he won the $250,000 bonus for the top-producing boat on the Deadliest Catch. Keith Colburn, owner/captain of a boat called the Wizard, fumed that Hansen has become arrogant and selfish. “One year I set him on a hot spot and gave him the charts for the area. I helped him out. I basically dialed him in 100 per cent, but he has never reciprocated.”

Hansen also guards his celebrity status. According to Larry Hendricks “When he found out I was made a consultant for Deadliest Catch, he went apeshit. He didn’t want me shaping the show. He feared that I could bring his world crumbling down, and he wanted his name listed on the credits above mine.” Hansen is the only active boat captain whom Deadliest Catch recognizes as a consultant.

“In Dutch, Hansen seemed to trail a dark aura behind him wherever he went. Once I saw him step into a bar, his blond hair perfectly coiffed….'Mr. Movie Star', I heard one crabber snort in disdain. “I think the fame has gone to his head,” said Ragnhild Moncrief (F/V FarWest Leader). “I went to his Christmas part last year and now he doesn’t even say hi to me. I guess he doesn’t like Norwegian women anymore.”

Donahue describes his encounter with Hansen in the bar of the Grand Aleutian Hotel while brother Norman “hovered nearby”:

“Hansen had his drinking money, a few twenties, laid out on the bar before him, and he was already yelling “My head fucking hurts,” he complained to the bartender. “Give me drugs.” Soon Hansen had eight tablets of ibuprofen in his palm. He downed the pills, gulping a chaser of vodka, and then he turned to me. Snatching my notebook out of my hand, he began batting me on the nose with it, cooing a singsongy taunt. “You’re trying to be professional,” he said “but you’re not. You’re silly. You’re silly.” He leaned in toward me, alarmingly close, and clenched his arm around my shoulder. Then he breathed hotly into my ear and rained kisses onto my neck. When I pried him off me, protesting, his brother Norman just laughed. “You haven’t been around Sig when he’s drinking,” he said.

Later, another crabber gave me a photo of Sig Hansen kissing the lips of a man with a beard. The man, I’d learn, was a Deadliest Catch staffer who was also apparently assailed out of the blue.

“Sig does that to bully people,” the crabber told me. “He’s mean.”

Next: Jonathan Hillstrand and Larry Hendricks.

Stay tuned.

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