Television

This fishing's not for the lazy

By Luaine Lee
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

04-29-2008

When you contemplate the firmament of TV stars, your first thoughts don't fall on a pair of macho fishermen who combat the elements eight months of the year in a battle for Alaska's king crab.

But Sig and Edgar Hansen find themselves in that rarefied company.

Sig is captain and Edgar deck boss of the Northwestern, one of the six boats featured on the Discovery Channel's surprise hit, Deadliest Catch.

Whether it's surviving four-story high waves, bone-breaking temperatures or paralyzing fatigue, Sig Hanson, 42, has been skippering for 18 years. With Edgar, 37, and another brother, Norman, 41, they challenge the sea the way their Norwegian father, grandfather and great grandfather did.

"The first couple years I hated it, but it grows on you," says Edgar Hansen over a hearty egg breakfast.

"You don't like it instantly, it takes a while, just like mold. It's addicting. It's a different world when you're out there in the middle of nowhere, something about it keeps drawing me back."

It's a gambler's game. Crews can make between $27 and $45 per crab, earning $40,000 to $50,000 per season, depending on the catch. Captains make twice that amount. If the weather turns on them, the catch diminishes or the ship falters they can go home empty handed.

Sig Hansen likes to keep the same crew, not only for crab fishing, but he also runs salmon charters and fishes cod.

"We have the same people coming back and we do pay them a little more percentage," says Sig, "and the boat is safer. On our boat we have a lot of family on there. It's usually someone you know, it's nice to hire someone you know is going to stick around for a while ..."

"You don't have applications and resumes," says Edgar. "The guy who's beating everybody up, that's the guy you want to take with you."

The boats fish the Bering Sea out of Dutch Harbor. While life on shore can be as wild as the Barbary Coast, not so onboard, says Sig. Each trip can range from 21/2 days to three weeks depending on corralling the crab. And only the males are kept. Though they use an electronic plotter and a GPS, finding the crustaceans is still dependent on the captain's instincts.

"You gotta get a feel for the area and there's crab in large areas but you're trying to find the ones that are schooled up for the max. It's the guy that can find that mass the fastest that wins the game."

There are four men on deck at all times, one in the bunk. They sleep and eat in rotation. "Guys like a steak when they can get it. They may have their dinner at 7 in the morning," says Sig.

"We take turns (eating) one guy at a time, with our slickers on," says Edgar.

Hansen spends between $5,000-$10,000 on dry goods per season. Meals are rushed and the most common fare is peanut butter sandwiches, each man for himself.

Sig describes the routine: "We'll have a four-hour runout, I'll stay awake for two days, take a little four-hour nap or something — stay awake for one more day and the guys will run the boat in. The guys are doing 16-hour shifts, four hours in the bunk ... They rotate like that. It's a machine which never stops."