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If you are looking for excitement, adventure and gut-wrenching work schedules go work on a crab boat. Better still; work a crab boat on the Bering Sea in the middle of winter in a force ten gale and with thirty foot seas. Alternatively if you wish for the same excitement but wish to keep your feet dry and on land then Discovery Channels Deadliest Catch is for you.

Deadliest Catch is a television phenomenon. Executive produced by Thom Beers of Original Productions this program has built up a steady cult-status-following among its legion of fans from across the world.

The ingredients for this TV feast are simple, add rough-tough fisherman with an overdose of the great Alaskan Bering Sea. This is where many men would quake in their boots and others have threatened to jump overboard.

The program team follow a number of vessels through each series the main-stays being Northwestern, Cornelia Marie and Time Bandit. The vessels are skippered by Sig Hanson, Phil Harris and Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand respectively. Captain Johnathan takes the helm for king crab season with Captain Andy taking the helm for the opilio season.

As the series has progressed new camera angles have been added to enhance the viewer's experience. Chase boats get the off-boat shots with a helicopter using a Wescam camera making the signature images of the series.

But what is the series trying to capture? It basically follows ordinary people going about their normal, daily work routines. And that is what makes this series so brilliant. You see the camaraderie of living and working together for sometimes weeks on end. Differing aspects of fishing life are laid bare from the delight at a great haul or the disappointment of nothing but empty pots; or worse all females so they have to be thrown back, known as rail dumping.

Cut to the great competition between the captains. There are always the practical jokes they play on each other, remember the pipe, or the pot that has been welded shut. There are too many to mention here but, all worth watching time and again.

We must also remember the sad times when the fleet go in search of their brothers of the sea who may be lost. That is when the realization hits you. It really is the deadliest job in the world.

Learn more about this author, Will Sirett.
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