Returning one day last week to Magnolia from Ballard, I noticed a sign just as I made the turn off the Ballard bridge. '"Deadliest Catch" Crab Boat Tours,' it read, 'Floating Dock #9, Fisherman's Terminal.'
With my interest piqued, I parked and walked behind Chinook's to where the working boats were moored. There, bedecked with a strand of nautical signal flags, was the F/V Sea Star, an Alaskan Crab vessel of first quality.
I could see somebody moving around in the aft cabin and the gangplank was down with a sign right next to it announcing tours and tour prices. It's $10 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and kids and under 5 free.
Climbing aboard, I met Michael Day, a grinning white-haired crab fisherman who welcomed me aboard and made me feel welcome. Day, who described himself as a "deck ape" or general deckhand on the Sea Star, cleared a chair for me.
We fell into an easy conversation with each other, and I learned that this 94-foot long ship was built in 1969 by the Marco Shipyard in Ballard and is one of seven vessels built by them then, for the then growing Bering Sea king crab industry.
If you're a fan of either "The Deadliest Season" documentary or "The Deadliest Catch" reality series on cable TV's Discovery Channel, you're not alone. Watched by some 3 million viewers per week, making it one of the top-rated programs on basic cable, the twice Emmy nominated "Deadliest Catch" is into its fourth season.
A quick lesson on fishing for crab. Alaskan crab, both King and Opilio (Snow Crab) are caught in baited pots that are the size of a Volkswagen and weigh around 800 pounds empty. When the boat is out over the fishing grounds, these are launched over the side of the boat and allowed to sit on the bottom for a while.
Then they're hauled back on board with a crane and until they're wrestled down and emptied, they're deadly, free-swinging, 1,000-pound plus cages full of crab.
The crew works day and night when the crab are running, sometimes 40 hours at a stretch.
"Crab travel across the bottom in feeding pods and even group together in large feeding balls," Day told me. The crabbers haul pots in 30-foot waves and 60-knot winds, with water cresting over the bow or the side. It's dangerous work.
The Sea Star is owned and operated by some of the captains of the "Deadliest Catch" and her crew of five kiddingly call themselves the "Geriatric Crew." Larry Hendricks, who is in his mid-50s, is the skipper and part owner. Besides Day, I also met Kenny Hendricks, 60, Larry's first cousin, who's been fishing for 31 years and conducted my tour. Dan Huggins, 60, and Norm Laurzen, 50, are also part of the crew. The typical crew of a working crab boat is usually in their mid-20s to late-30s.
The Sea Star was retired from active fishing in 2005 and converted into a tourist attraction.
Kenny showed me out of the aft cabin, down a ladder and across the center section of deck where all the work goes on and then we crossed beneath the winch. One thing the Sea Star is equipped with, that other boats aren't, are five flat screen TV monitors stationed around the vessel showing significant or especially educational scenes from the show.
We went up into the wheelhouse and looked at maps of the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, poked our heads into what are the meager sleeping quarters and peered down into the only "off limits" area on the entire ship. Liability rules prevent the public from getting a look at the engine room and the 750-horsepower V-12 Caterpillar diesel that powers the Sea Star.
We paused in the galley and I noticed how the table had a raised lip edged around it to keep anything set there, on the table, during a pitching sea.
Like race car drivers and other celebrities, the crabbers of "Deadliest Catch" have discovered that there's money to be made through merchandising. In the aft cabin of the Sea Star are racks full of various "Alaska's Deadliest Crab" souvenir T-shirts, hats, jackets and various merchandise. They've even got little kid's sizes.
Day and Hendricks told me that they'd be tied up at Fisherman's Terminal for most of the summer. Stop by and show the kids some of the interesting industry that goes on somewhat in their own neighborhood. It's something to think about the next time you put a forkful of crab in your mouth.[[In-content Ad]]
