Deadliest Catch..... ridiculous or is it just me?

[ralexa6808]

Just watched an episode of “The Deadliest Catch” on TV and although I know it's a scripted reality show, it shocked me to think how haphazard /stupid someone can be. The boat was 440 miles out of Dutch Harbor, beyond the range of Coast Guard help (I guess they mean helicopter range), in a storm with 30 foot waves and winds. The boat was listing 20 degrees to Port and was taking on water from the Bow. The Captain said He was unable to steer/control the boat and there was a real danger that the boat could keel over and sink There was 2 feet of water in the front compartment and they could not start or get the bilge pump for that area to work. The Deadliest Catch Film Crew Boat was nearby, and had a spare bilge pump onboard and was able to assist.
OK, I know it's drama / possibly a manufactured emergency (by the producers), but to have only one bilge pump for a given area of the boat, NO spare bilge pumps on board, and no back up secondary bilge system in one of the toughest Seas on the Planet is either totally irresponsible or F'in Stupid. I can't believe a boat that size, working in that part of the world, would not ensure that a critical system had spare equipment or a redundant back up. To operate in those Seas are the insurance regs that lax? Are the Owners unconcerned that their million dollar plus investment could be lost, not to mention the Men onboard? The Coast Guard must inspect these boats, they don't see the need of additional pumps/parts as standard equipment?


I can't count how many times it's been said on this Forum to not only test your bilge pumps regularly but to have spares/a crash pump and/or a back up system in place. I may be overreacting.....but I don't think I am. It just burns me that these shows think the General Public is naive, and maybe they are but if I was the Captain on that boat I would been embarrassed to run a boat that way and as a Deck Hand knowing the above I wouldn't step foot on Her. God knows what else isn't working or has no redundancy/equipment.

I'm not a know it all, far from it.
As usual my 2cents...... and a bit of a rant.

 

[Pascal]

Surprised they don’t have a big diesel crash pump on board

I stopped watching the show years ago when all theses grown tough guys turned in housewives gossipers talking about their feelings all the time

 

[Avenger]

Commercial fishermen can be an amazing bunch. I've worked on a couple of boats I was afraid to get on while they were tied to the dock. Yet these guys took them offshore routinely. Normalization of risk, I guess.

 

[rwaldrop13]

You are correct that they're outside of helicopter response range. The Coast Guard routinely patrols the Bering Sea, conducting fisheries enforcement as well as search and rescue resource availability, and those ships have helos embarked. But launching/recovering requires safe conditions. I watched an episode Sunday from Season 1 and realized that it was probably the only episode I've ever seen where they demonstrate/practice donning survival suits. And as an old Coast Guardsman, who spent 3 years in New Bedford Mass, the Alaska ships are not as scary as the Massachusetts boats, but they seem more concerned with chasing dollars than safety. But I also believe that the show's producers are showing the "exciting" footage, not the safety practices.

 

[MadHatter53]

Someone left the forward hatch open.

 

[JuiceClark]

My wife's from Gloucester and her 1st cousin is "Sandro" from Wicked Tuna on the Tuna.com boat. When the show was new, he told me all about it at a wedding up there.

They shoot all the footage on each boat in 3 days. Everything is scripted. 95% of the time you see a guy reeling in a big one, he's actually reeling a 5-gallon bucket.

The biggest bummer is how little they get paid for the show. Sandro said he's just making enough to continue getting a Master's degree without struggling. They have to syndicate the show before everyone gets seriously paid. Maybe they've done that by now.

 

[rwaldrop13]

My wife's from Gloucester and her 1st cousin is "Sandro" from Wicked Tuna on the Tuna.com boat. When the show was new, he told me all about it at a wedding up there.

They shoot all the footage on each boat in 3 days. Everything is scripted. 95% of the time you see a guy reeling in a big one, he's actually reeling a 5-gallon bucket.

The biggest bummer is how little they get paid for the show. Sandro said he's just making enough to continue getting a Master's degree without struggling. They have to syndicate the show before everyone gets seriously paid. Maybe they've done that by now.

Now you've ruined it for me! Seriously, I was stationed on a big ship out of New Bedford from 1987 to 1990 and nothing you said surprises me.

 

[rsmith]

I don’t have any direct knowledge of how these shows are produced. But when I was in my late teens I spent 2 seasons working on scallop boats out of Cape May NJ. If these guys are anything like the scallopers if you edited out all the f bombs racist comments sexual references and general inappropriate language there probably would be no dialogue at all. So yeah no doubt it’s scripted and probably rehearsed.

 

[krush]

Commercial fishermen can be an amazing bunch. I've worked on a couple of boats I was afraid to get on while they were tied to the dock. Yet these guys took them offshore routinely. Normalization of risk, I guess.

They are called "uninspected fishing vessels" for a reason. Most of the rules don't really apply to them, including unique (lack of) license requirements.

 

[Dolandbill3]

Hey from newbie, My mother likes "The Deadliest Catch"