Johnathan Hillstrand's misfortune is our viewing pleasure, the Bering Sea crabbing captain tells Bruce Munro.
The veteran of 35 winters on the high seas is plotting a sea change.
Johnathan Hillstrand (52) is captain of the fishing boat Time Bandit, which features in the 11th season of Deadliest Catch, a reality show set in the inhospitable Bering Sea between United States' Alaska and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
Hillstrand says many crab fishermen die before their time, so he is taking steps to ensure he does not add to that grim roll-call. But it is not stopping him spinning the wheel for a few more seasons of big stakes crabbing.
The Alaskan king cab season runs from mid-October to mid-January. It is a three-month, quota-based, crab-pot fishing frenzy worth tens of millions of dollars. The crabbers brave massive waves, endure little sleep and risk life and limb for a share of the pincer-snapping $US14 a kg ($NZ21) prize which can net them more than $100,000 each in just three months.
On board half a dozen boats, including the Time Bandit, capturing all the action and drama for a worldwide television audience, are Discovery film crews.
Ensuring the safety of the film crew can add to the pressure, but they also become friends, Hillstrand says.
Some of the boats' younger crew do try to ''act cool'' for the cameras.
''But otherwise, it's all real. We've got a job to do. There are no re-takes,'' he says.
Hillstrand became a full-time fisherman when he left high-school. For eight years, he fished for lobster off the New England coast. But the rest of his career has been spent crabbing during the northern winter.
During the summer, he enjoys recreational salmon fishing.
''I'd love to come down your way,'' he says.
''I hear you've got some great salmon fishing there.''
The latest crabbing season, which begins airing in New Zealand tomorrow, was an eventful one, Hillstrand said.
''I go through hell,'' he says.
''You're going to love this season. What's bad for me, is good for you.''
A nephew, who crews on his boat, badly injures his hand.
''We have to take him to the best hand specialist in the world.
''I have to phone his mom up. That was the worst thing ever.''
Time Bandit also faces some other crewing challenges.
''You're only as strong as your weakest link. People die out there a lot, so we take our safety seriously. If you end up with a guy who doesn't care, then you get rid of him.''
And then there are the enormous storms, including one of the strongest extratropical cyclones on record in the North Pacific, which was dubbed the Bering Sea super storm, ''There's all sorts of weird stuff happens this season,'' Hillstrand says.
''We take bigger waves than we have ever taken ... The rogue waves were really weird this year.''
Given all the difficulties, why does he keep coming back?''When I was a kid, all the cool guys who had their own truck, the good-looking girls and the money, they were the crab fishermen,'' he explains.
''The money is really good. And then it gets in your blood. You can have a bad season, and then you hear about the guys who make $300,000 in three months. That brings you back out, because you could be that guy.
''It's a gamble, you might only make $40,000. My guys on average make about $120,000. None of them are college-educated. That's pretty good money for a kid straight out of high school.''
Hillstrand reckons he has got four winters on the water left.
''The lifestyle kills a lot of us ... When you live that close to death, then you live each day like you don't have tomorrow. If you do that, you don't live long.''
''I want to live longer, so I'm making some serious life changes. I have two beautiful grand-kids. I want to be around for them.''
The 11th season of Deadliest Catch premieres tomorrow at 8.30pm, on Discovery.
