STRESS, STRESSORS, AND STRESS OUTCOMES

DEADLIEST CATCH, S04E04, UNSAFE & UNSOUND

Show Summary
The series follows life on "the vast Bering Sea" aboard five or more crab fishing boats (the four featured vesselsCornelia Marie, Wizard, Northwestern, and Time Banditand one or more "wild card" boats that are shown for all or part of a single season) during two of the dangerous crab fishing seasons, the October king crab season and the January opilio crab (a.k.a. C. opilio; often referred to as "snow crab" or "opies") season. The show emphasizes the very real danger to the crew on the decks of these boats (and the Discovery Channel camera crews filming them) as crews ply their trade while ducking heavy crab pots swinging into position, maneuvering hundreds and thousands of pounds of crab across a deck strewn with tripping hazards (holding tank hatches, uneven surfaces, maintenance access plates), and leaning over the rails to position pots for either launch or retrieval as gale-force winds and waves four to five times taller than an average man constantly lash over the deck. The series also documents the dangers of even being on a boat in the Bering Sea crab grounds, in the midst of some of the coldest and stormiest waters on earth, where even the most minor problem becomes complex and requires considerable ingenuity to solve when the nearest port of any kind is often hundreds of miles away. Each episode focuses on a story, situation, or theme that occurs on one or more boats, while side stories delve into the backgrounds and particular activities of one or two crew members, in particular the "greenhorns" (rookie crew members) on several boats. The fleets' captains are featured prominently throughout the episodes, highlighting their camaraderie with their fellow captains and relationships with their crew, as well as their competitive nature against the other boats in the fleet regarding the hunt for crab throughout the fishing grounds. Common themes woven throughout the overarching storyline of the particular fishing season include friendly rivalries between the captains (particularly between Sig Hansen of the Northwestern, Johnathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit, and Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie), the familial ties throughout the fleet (brothers Sig, Norm, and Edgar Hansen, who own the Northwestern, joined on board by Nick Mavar and his nephew Jake Anderson; Phil Harris and his two sons, Jake and Josh, on the Cornelia Marie; the Hillstrand family brothers Jonathan, Andy, and Neil, and Jonathan's son Scotton the Time Bandit; brothers Keith and Monte Colburn of the Wizard), the stresses of life on the Bering Sea, and the high burnout rate among greenhorns. Because Alaskan crab fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, the U.S. Coast Guard rescue squads stationed at Integrated Support Command Kodiak (Kodiak, Alaska) and their outpost on St. Paul Island, near the northern end of the crab fishing grounds, are frequently shown doing their own dangerous work: rescuing crab boat crew members who fall victim to the harsh conditions on the Bering Sea. The USCG rescue squad was featured prominently during the episodes surrounding the loss of F/V
1 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

Big Valley in January 2005, the loss of F/V Ocean Challenger in October 2006, and the loss of F/V Katmai in October 2008. Original Productions keeps a camera crew stationed with the Coast Guard during the filming of the show.i

Cast of Characters
Fishing Vesselii Captain Season(s) 1 (Opilio season), 2, 3, 4, 5 (start of King Crab season, Opilio Season), 6 (King Crab season, start of Opilio season);After the Catch 1, 2, 3 4 (End of Opilio season), 5 (King Crab season); "After the Catch" 3 Pilot, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; After the Catch 1, 2, 3, 4 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; After the Catch 1, 2, 3, 4 3 (King Crab season), 4, 5, 6 (King crab season), 7; After the Catch 1, 2, 3, 4

Cornelia Marie

Phil Harris[2]

Murray Gamrath

Northwestern Sig Hansen

Johnathan Hillstrand (King crab season) Andy Hillstrand (Opilio season) Keith Colburn

Time Bandit[5]

Wizard

Episode Recap
The crew of the Wizard worked a 9-nautical-mile (17 km), 55 pot string that Captain Keith Colburn called a "man killer". When greenhorn Jason Moilanen was not on deck for the start of the string, Captain Keith gave him some advice on how to cope with the long shifts. After three weeks of bad fishing and with 3 days to catch 88,000 pounds (40,000 kg) of crab for a scheduled delivery, Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie made radio calls to other captains to get some help on where to drop his pots, but received no answer. With no advice available, Captain Phil gambled on dropping a full load of pots in untested waters. Greenhorn Josh Harris and Deckhand Freddy Maugatai tried to change the boat's luck by shaving their heads into a mohawk, but the sacrifice proved ineffective and the Cornelia Marie continued to pull pots with low counts, and the stress of a bad season began to noticeably affect Phil's demeanor and already high stress levels. On board the Northwestern, Captain Sig Hansen and Deck Boss Edgar Hansen challenged each other over who could stay awake the longest without breaking. Captain Sig finally offered a truce after he nodded off at the wheel after staying awake for over 47 hours; in response, Edgar led a celebration on deck: "We broke the skipper!". At Dutch Harbor for their first offload of the season, the Time Bandit lost a crew member when Captain Johnathan Hillstrand's son, Scott, decided that family was more important to him than fishing and he left to fly home; Scott made the distinct point that Johnathan had been gone for almost all of Scott's childhood, and Scott wanted better for his own children, which wounded Johnathan's pride greatly. A flashback to three weeks earlier detailed a freak accident where Johnathan Hillstrand fell overboard while the Time Bandit was docked at Dutch Harbor. Time Bandit Deckhand Eddie Uwekoolani was taken to the emergency clinic where he was diagnosed with a chipped bone in his
2 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

ankle that required a cast, requiring Johnathan to have to rotate Eddie to a position requiring less mobility while his boat was already a crewman down.iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deadliest_Catch_episodes

Discussion Questions
1. 2. 3. 4. What are the individual level stressors at work in this episode? What are the group and organizational stressors? What stress outcomes are observed? What are the stress moderators?

Solutions
Write to starling@qatar.cmu.edu for to obtain a copy of the solution to this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadliest_Catch#Format http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadliest_Catch#Featured_fishing_vessels iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deadliest_Catch_episodes#Season_4
i ii

Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu