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tells City Times writer Zoe Sinclair about life on the ocean as Season Three hits the airwaves

IF YOU EVER caught a ride on the 'Northwestern' vessel, and most of us will have to make do with the show, you wouldn't dare bring a suitcase aboard, bring a horseshoe for good luck and don't even think about being positive.

Yes, life is different on the ocean as Northwestern captain Sig Hansen described. For one, they're a superstitious bunch, but then when you're dealing with the conditions at the Bering Sea and heavy crab pots, you want everything possible working in your favour.

The show gained the title Deadliest Catch quite simply because it is one of the most dangerous jobs with an injury rate of almost 100 per cent and a death rate of about one fisherman per week in peak season, according to statistics.

The majority of those deaths are due to drowning and hypothermia in the harsh conditions of the Bering Sea with gales, rogue waves and ice forming on the boat.

Fishing for King, Tanner and Opilio Crab off the coast of Alaska is also extremely lucrative and Hansen refers to the huge crab pots that are reeled in during the season as 'pots of gold.' A few days good fishing could mean $500,000 and good seasons have seen loads as high as 2 million tonnes worth of crab.

The fourth generation fisherman, whose family originally began the tradition in Norway, Sig Hansen began fishing at the age of 14-years-old. It is his Norwegian roots that he attributes his superstitious character. 'I was brought up to be superstitious,' he said. 'We don't like suitcases on board,' he said. 'Horseshoes are bad luck on a fishing boat.'

Hansen said it was also never assumed, let alone voiced, that the crew might have a good season and risk jinxing themselves. 'The crew never talk positive around me or I'll get very positive,' he laughed. After a prayer and when the boat has been blessed, the crew are ready to hit the water.

Apart from the usual gear, all they need is cigarettes, chocolate and coffee, lots of cigarettes, chocolate and coffee. Other than those few vital ingredients to keep them going, Hansen said a good crab fisherman needed a couple of strong qualities, stubbornness and knowledge of the sea, something he gained early.

'You've got to be very stubborn,' he said. 'You've got to have the attitude to never quit. 'You don't know what is around the corner.' Hansen said at one moment the crew could be battling tough conditions and not finding any crabs and the next reeling in 'pots of gold.' But despite it all, Hansen said he couldn't imagine himself in any other occupation.

It's all he knows, but the job is more than that and he said there was no other occupation that provided the freedom and adrenalin crab fishing did. 'I'm more afraid to drive down the street than be on that boat,' he said. 'We know that boat so well.'

And it's the same for his two brothers who join him on the boat as deckhands and engineers. Most of the crew has been on the Northwestern for about 20 years and Hansen said it was this experience and familiar working relationship that had helped the Northwestern maintain its strong safety record without any deaths.

'There have been times when it gets scary,' he said. 'We've been close to sinking the boat a couple of times.'

On these occasions the build up of ice was so severe it threatened to sink the boat and it took 18 hours to clear the ice and render the boat safe again.

Under such conditions, Hansen said it had been difficult getting used to having a film crew with little experience of the ocean aboard. On two occasions the Northwestern crew helped save the life of a film crewmember simply because they were in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

But the same Discovery film crew has traveled with the Northwestern for the third time and caught the action and danger of life on the Bering Sea.

Alaskan crab fishing facts

• Deadliest Catch follows boats during two crab seasons: red king crab season and opilio crab season. Red king crabs are the largest crab species, weighing an average of 3 to 5 kilogrammes (with the record female and male weighing 5.25 and 12 kilogrammes, respectively. The male's leg span was nearly 1.5 metres across). Opilio crabs weigh an average of 0.5 to 1.5 kilogrammes.
• At nearly 6 Euro per kilo, fishermen can make between 17 - 28 Euro for each red king crab they catch. At about 2 Euro per kilo, an average opilio crab can fetch between 1-3 Euro. King crab season begins on the same date each year: October 15. While boats are also legally allowed to catch opilio crabs in October, due to biological issues and market demand, most crews wait until January to fish for their quota.
• In the Autumn of 2005, an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) programme known as 'Crab Rationalisation' was implemented in the crab fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands of Alaska. This programme has resulted in intense consolidation within the crabbing industry, and after just one year, has emerged as an unmitigated disaster for coastal communities and the environment.
• The crab boats range in size from 17.5 to 50 metres (most are about 36.5 metres); each crew consists of a captain and three to nine deckhands. Adult king crabs are seldom found coexisting with the opposite sex, even though their habitats may overlap.
• Fishermen are allowed to harvest only adult male crab. All females and juveniles must be thrown back. If a crab dies in the boat's holding tank, it emits toxins that can poison the other crabs; one dead crab has the potential to wipe out the entire catch.
• Fresh water, warm water or bad water circulation in the boat's holding tank all have the potential to kill crab. In fact, being in stagnant water will kill crab faster than being left out of the water. On the Bering sea fishermen endure subzero arctic weather, 100 kilometre-per-hour winds and turbulent seas, with waves the size of four-story buildings - all on three to four hours of sleep each night.
• To add to the weather nightmare, nearly four thousand litres of water crashes on the deck every 30 seconds, freezing as it hits the boat.
• To prevent the boat from becoming too top-heavy and capsizing at sea, deckhands are continuously forced to stop fishing and spend hours clearing the ice with sledgehammers. In conditions like this, it's not uncommon for deckhands to experience stage-one hypothermia, with symptoms including shivering, poor coordination, slurred speech and poor judgment.

Sig and the crew

Sig Hansen revels in the strategy and competition of fishing. He has been a captain for the last 18 years, and is the eldest of the three brothers who operate the family-owned vessel. A fourth-generation Norwegian fisherman, Sig tends to be very superstitious. The Seattle Wash resident operates the Northwestern with the help and unsolicited opinions from his younger brother Edgar Hansen and his other more reserved brother Norman Hansen. Working alongside the Hansen brothers as deckhands are Nick Mavar Jr and Matt Bradley, both of whom have been part of the crew for several years.

Catch 'Deadliest Catch' on Discovery Channel, exclusively available on Orbit across the Middle East

Deadliest Catch 3 Episode 5 13/08/2007 0100, Episode 6 20/08/2007 0100, Episode 7 27/08/2007 0100, Episode 8 03/09/2007 00:00, Episode 9 10/09/2007 00:00, Episode 10 24/09/2007 00:00, Episode 11 01/10/2007 00:00 and Episode 12 08/10/2007 00:00.

Photos: Courtesy Of Discovery Channel