Deadliest Catch heads into uncharted waters
NEW YORK — Climate change is one of the main characters in the new season of Deadliest Catch, with the crab fishermen in one of Discovery’s most enduring and popular shows forced to deal with a sudden warming of the Bering Sea that chases their prey into deeper, more dangerous water.
That leads the adventure series into its own uncharted waters.
“It’s a big risk for us to discuss climate change because so many people can think that it’s a political issue when really it isn’t, particularly in the context of the fishing fleet,” said R. Decker Watson, Jr., one of the executive producers of the show, which airs Tuesday nights.
The waters off Alaska that provide the livelihood for the show’s real-life stars warmed by a dramatic four degrees in one year. The cold water-loving crab is depleted in the traditional fishing areas, so some of the boats strike out for new territory that is more dangerous because of fiercer storms and is further from rescue workers if something goes wrong, he said.
The developments offer an opportunity to educate an audience that might be less familiar about climate change. The median age of a Deadliest Catch viewer is 50 and the show skews 60 per cent male which, judging by the results of the last U.S. election, might include its share of climate-change skeptics. Yet Discovery isn’t interested in preaching; the series is more interested in documenting what is happening, not in explaining why.
There are no scientists aboard the fishing boats, and the show’s main purpose is to follow the lives of the crew, said Rich Ross, Discovery president.
“At the end of the day, the job of Deadliest Catch isn’t to teach people, it’s to keep people at the edge of their seats,” Watson said.
This week’s season-opener of Deadliest Catch came just ahead of the airing Friday of the documentary, Sacred Cod, about the collapse of the cod fishing industry in New England.
Earlier this decade, with the documentary series Frozen Planet, some environmentalists criticized Discovery for sidestepping issues surrounding global warming. But at the end of 2015, the network aired the pointed documentary Racing Extinction, about the depletion of species, simultaneously in 220 markets around the world.
The show’s new season isn’t all about missing fish, as it documents the personalities of the men involved in the dangerous pursuit. One captain, Sig Hansen, survived a heart attack and this season is contemplating how long he wants to keep fishing.
Watson has worked his way up from being one of the filmmakers on a fishing boat to one of the show’s leaders, and he feels a personal stake in what’s happening in the Bering Sea and on the planet in general.
“When something like this comes up, it’s felt by all of us,” he said. “We look forward to going back to Dutch Harbor every year. There’s something special about it.”