Deadliest Catch is a show that has managed to exist for more than a decade’s time. After all, it started up in 2005, with the result that it is now on Season 5. On top of this, it should be mentioned that Deadliest Catch continues to bring in respectable numbers, meaning that chances are good that it will continue to be broadcast for years and years to come. Under these circumstances, it should come as no surprise to learn that Deadliest Catch has seen some significant changes for the simple reason that it isn’t immune to the simple passage of time.
How Has Deadliest Catch Evolved Over Time?
For starters, Deadliest Catch has seen considerable change in the vessels that are featured on the show, which in turn, means even more considerable changes in the people who can be expected to show up. Moreover, there are a number of people connected to the show in various ways who have passed away. One example would be Blake Painter, the one-time captain of the F/V Maverick who was found in his home in 2018, while another example would be Justin Tennison, a deckhand on Time Bandit who was found in a hotel room 2011. However, for most people, the most notable incident would be Phil Harris, who was offloading crab at St. Paul Island when he suffered a serious stroke. Eventually, Harris was airlifted to Anchorage where he received emergency brain surgery to relieve the pressure that was building up, but while there was a time when it seemed that he was improving, he succumbed on February 9 of 2019. Due to this, Phil Harris received a jazz funeral performed by the Soul Rebels Brass Brand, which was broadcast on After the Catch.
Besides this, it is worth mentioning that Deadliest Catch has been successful enough to inspire a huge franchise. For instance, the show isn’t just popular enough to warrant season after season, it is popular enough to warrant multiple specials to make sure that interested individuals can get more of what they want. This can be seen in how there is both a pre-game show and a post-game show featuring captains from the main event. Likewise, this can be seen in the expanded episodes, which are packed with additional features to make them worth re-watching for the fans of the franchise. On top of this, there have even been a couple of crossovers with other Discovery Channel shows, with one being an episode of MythBusters that looked into various crab fishing-related myths and another being an episode of How It’s Made that looked into the production of items either used for crab fishing or otherwise connected with crab fishing.
However, the Deadliest Catch franchise is by no means limited to these specials. After all, it has a spinoff that started up in 2016, which is focused on crab fishing off of the coast of Oregon rather than crab fishing out on the Bering Sea. Furthermore, there is a lot of Deadliest Catch merchandise, which has been snatched up by interested individuals. One example would be the books, which have ranged from a collection of photos to a collection of stories about life out on the sea. Another example would be the video game, which somehow managed to be popular enough to receive not just a follow-up but also a mobile game some time later.
Moving on, it is important to note that Deadliest Catch has been running long enough that crab fishing conditions have seen significant changes. In short, what has been happening is that the effects of climate change have been observed in the Bering Sea, which is heating up at a much faster pace than most of the planet. As a result, the warming waters have been causing crab populations to move elsewhere, which in turn, means that the Alaskan authorities have been forced to cut down on the amount of crab that the crab fishers are permitted to catch. In other words, climate change is posing a serious threat to the crab fishing industry out on the Bering Sea as a whole rather than individual captains on individual ships. This is because smaller numbers mean smaller profits, thus resulting in an increased struggle for what remains by the people who are involved with said industry. Even worse, this isn’t really a problem that the crab fishing industry can solve on its own since climate change is very much a worldwide problem that will need a worldwide solution.
Finally, it is worth mentioning some of the impact that Deadliest Catch has had. For example, it has made the crab fishing industry out on the Bering Sea known to a lot of people in the United States and beyond for the very first time because previous to the start of the show, said industry was very much out of sight and thus out of mind for most viewers. Likewise, the success of Deadliest Catch has contributed to the trend of various channels making more and more unscripted shows, which in some cases, have proven to be very enlightening, while in other cases, have proven to be much less so. Besides this, it is interesting to note that the sheer popularity of Deadliest Catch has had an impact on the crab fishing industry itself, which is something true for a number of other unscripted shows that have managed to secure similar measures of success as well.
Further Considerations
Summed up, Deadliest Catch has been running for more than a decade’s time. As a result, it is no wonder that it has both changed and been changed over the course of its existence, which has remained true in spite of the fact that it has long since turned into a fixture of the TV landscape. Currently, the show isn’t really slowing down, meaning that there is a non-zero chance that it will continue to affect everything around it for years and years to come.
Follow Us
