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| Finding the "Deadliest Catch" on the Columbia River |
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 | | Photo courtesy the Discovery Channel | | Like all the "Deadliest Catch" fleet, the F.V. Maverick is heavily built to withstand the perils of the Bering Sea, including winter gales, huge breaking waves and ice forming on the superstructure. |
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By Peter Marsh
Anglers may love watching "Fishing the West" and sailors the America's Cup TV coverage, but when it comes to boating excitement with across-the-board appeal, nothing comes close to the "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. This is the "reality" series that has successfully followed a group of crab fishing boats for three years as they engage in the most dangerous occupation in North America--crab fishing in winter on the Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia.
The program's name is not hype: Between 1980 and the winter of 2005, an average of more than three crewmen a year died while harvesting king and opilio crabs. The fishery took place in a fiercely competitive derby as crews raced to grab as much crab as possible during seasons that sometimes lasted less than a week. The death toll helped spur Congress and the regional fishery council to end the derby system and divide the total quota among the more than 300 vessel owners, who received the right to fish, lease or sell those shares to the highest bidder.
Crab quotas vary each year, depending on the crab population. This year's allowable harvest for the king crab was 20.4 million pounds with most harvesters getting $4.20 per lb.-that's over $80 million to be divided amongst the fleet. The Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor is the homeport for this fishery, but most of the craft return to ports in Washington and Oregon to repair and refit their boats every year or two.
Much of this work is carried out in the Seattle area, but one of the boats is home-ported in Warrenton, OR, (although you might never learn this by watching the show!). What you will learn is that the F.V. Maverick was owned and operated by the only husband-and-wife team in the Alaska crabbing industry-- Rick and Donna Quashnick..
F.V. Maverick of Warrenton
Rick was born into a local fishing family and began his career gillnetting on the Columbia River for salmon, shad, and smelt. Donna grew up in a career Coast Guard family and met Rick just after high school. Her interest in fishing grew from a close relationship with her father, who worked on a Coast Guard buoy tender. Soon after they married, Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980 and dumped ash into the Columbia River, ruining the fishing for several years. They decided it was time to diversify and bought the Maverick-a 92-foot steel boat that holds between 100-110 pots, needs a minimum of five crew and can sleep seven. It is one of the smallest boats in the fleet on the show-- but still catches its share.
Rick began operating the Maverick in the Bering Sea crab season in the fall of 1991 while Donna split her time between raising their family of five daughters and building a successful year-round fishing operation.
In recent years, the Maverick began fishing for Opilio snow crab in January-February, then they switched to tendering herring in April-May and salmon tendering in June-July. After that season ends, the boat and her crew go halibut longlining in August-September, and finally run up to Bristol Bay to catch Red King crab in October-November.
While Rick is the captain, Donna is the boat's co-owner, helmsman, cook and "mom," and has been on the Maverick every winter for 14 years. She's one of the few women who go out for the season. The fact that they're a husband-and-wife team drew producers of the show to the Maverick, Rick said. Although he initially said no to the idea of camera crews onboard, having his boat featured on the show has been fun, he admitted.
"You're so involved with what's happening with the fishery, and on the boat, you forget that they're there till you bump into them," Donna explained. And because the cameras capture about 300 minutes of life onboard the boat for every one minute that ends up on screen, the Quashnicks' don't know what viewers will see next. "We have no idea what they're going to show," Rick admitted. "It's always kind of a surprise." In one episode, the Maverick began to ice up, a situation that can lead to the boat becoming so top heavy it could capsize. Rick was shown saying "I just hope I can get back to dock without turning this sucker into a giant popsicle."
"The show is a way for people across the country, most of whom have no connection to the fishing industry, to get a sense of the difficulties of the job," Donna points out. "When they get a plate of king crab in a restaurant, they don't realize what the fishermen have gone through to get that on their plate. They begin to understand ... and hopefully buy more, and keep us in business!" she adds with a laugh. (The red king Crab is the most coveted commercially sold king crab. It is very large, sometimes reaching a carapace width of 11 inches and a leg span of 6 feet.)
The Quashnicks are capitalizing on the publicity generated by the show with their own line of seafood and clothing carrying the Maverick logo. It's available through their website and through their booth at the Astoria Sunday Market, which is where I met Donna last summer. She was selling all the clothing line, cans of salmon and smoked salmon, albacore tuna and sturgeon and taking orders for the 10 and 20 lbs boxes of frozen crab legs. (All this fish is top quality and canned or frozen as fresh as possible.) To learn more go to:
www.maverickseafood.com
www.fvmaverick.com
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