by Marie Stine

Created on: May 25, 2010   Last Updated: September 29, 2010

The Deadliest Catch airs Tuesday nights on the Discovery channel.  The show follows several Alaskan fishing vessels during the Alaskan crabbing season on the Bering Sea.   The Deadliest Catch is going into its 7th season and has garnered a large following of fans.  Fishing on the Bering Sea seems to be a family affair as many of the boats are crewed by brothers, fathers and sons.  The show details the grueling, demanding, sometimes deadly, hard work of crab fisherman and is tagging along with the following boats:

The Cornelia Marie

The Kodiak

The Northwestern

The Time Bandit

The Wizard

The Cornelia Marie is captained by Phil Harris.  Captain Phil Harris suffered a stroke on January 29, 2010 while unloading crab on St. Paul Island.  Even though he underwent a 12 hour surgery in Anchorage, Alaska; sadly, he died a few weeks later.  Captain Phil was constantly playing the referee between his two sons who argue perpetually during the season.  Other than his sons fighting, everyone else on the crew of the Cornelia Marie gets along with little drama.       

The Kodiak is a new fishing vessel The Deadliest Catch is following this season.  “Wild” Bill Wichrowski has returned to the Bering Sea after being absent for a few years.  He and his crew are having a tough time finding the crab and he has to call his good buddy, Captain Jonathan Hillstrand for help.  Wild Bill’s crew, which includes his greenhorn son, has had several near accidents with crab pots due to poorly tied knots.  This infuriates the captain causing him to rake his crew over the coals.

The Northwestern was originally built in 1977 by Sverre Hansen, father of Sig, Edgar and Norman.  While Norman is not usually seen on camera, there is a lot of tension between Sig and Edgar.  Captain Sig Hansen is a tough task master who pushes his crew to the limit.  Edgar is the deck boss and really doesn’t appreciate when Sig tries to tell him how to run the deck.

The Time Bandit is co-captain by the Hillstrand brothers, Andy and Jonathan, while younger brother Neal is the boat’s engineer.  Andy and Jonathan have a great relationship and love to be on the hunt for crab.  Though they had to fire one of their crew members last season; their current crew works well together.        

There is always drama aboard the Wizard which is captained by Keith Colburn and occasionally by his brother, Monte.  Captain Keith runs a tight ship and doesn’t tolerate any backtalk from anyone whether it’s his brother or crew.  There’s also tension between Captain Keith and Captain Jonathan Hillstrand who got into a fight before the season started. 

It’s hard to pick just one crew among the fishing vessels as the most interesting.  Each week brings new ups and downs for all the crews which is what draws fans to the show and keeps them watching week after week.    

 http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/deadliest-catch/

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