Reality TV series have taken over the race for fish. It seems every time you turn around, there’s another camera crew rushing off to the fishing grounds, wrapping their tentacles around the next muscle fishery to capture the action and drama that comes with commercial fishing.
Will these "Battle on the Bay" fishermen be the next famous faces of the industry?The fact is, they’re not wrong. Compared to the sedentary lifestyles of most Americans, the kind of work fishermen do is legitimately exciting. And to think, most of us get to watch all the action from the comfort of our own overstuffed couches.
When you go to fishing towns where these shows are based (or read the blogs about them), the local people tend to roll their eyes a bit about the choice of the stars, how unrealistic the so-called reality show is, how commercial it’s gotten or is bound to be. But behind that eye roll, there’s a glimmer. They’re a little puffed up to have some inside knowledge of a national show.
We all tend to get caught up in our own little worlds. People think as a magazine editor that I write all day long. I do a good bit of writing, but what I do most is generate and traffic ideas for stories, staying in contact with the people who write them, editing them as they come in, finding photos and other art to accompany them. And that’s just for the magazine. I do the same for our website, the newsletter we send out twice a week, the quarterly we send out to the West Coast and Alaska, our conference programs and any other industry-related shows and conferences I’d like to attend in my, uh, spare time.
You get the idea. As busy as I am and as exciting as I find my work, I’m doubtful it would make a decent reality show. But what you do is genuinely thrilling, and it’s unlike anything else. I know it can be repetitive. And for many of you the lifestyle is all you’ve ever known. All your parents and grandparents knew. It’s what many of your friends do.
But there’s no denying that it’s wild. And most of America simply has no idea — until they see it come across the screen. The death-defying action of the American fishboys!
Sure, I’d like to see more interesting and thoughtful shows about the nation’s commercial fisheries. But we all know what makes for popular TV, and it’s not thoughtfulness. But what does happen when there’s yet another fishing reality show is that a small portion of those viewers will have their eyes opened to what it all really means. Those will be the people who will watch the documentaries about commercial fishing. Those are the people who might happen upon your direct-marketing page on Facebook. Those are the people who will ask where their fish comes from the next time they walk up to the fish counter. And I would guess some of them might even try fish from your waters for the first time after watching the show.
It’s easy to imagine that being in the spotlight exposes all the wrong things. But ultimately, most people don’t remember all of the gory details. What they remember is that you fish for a living, and they want to eat what you catch.
Just look at Sig Hansen. He was just another Norwegian-Alaskan crab captain. Sure he may have stepped in it a little with his Russian crab deal. But just look at him now on Celebrity Apprentice! The general public doesn’t remember the bad stuff unless it’s really, really bad and consistently so.
Love him or otherwise, Sig represents king crab. And what that means is that every time his face is on TV, someone who might not have thought of it is going to go out and buy some king crab. That may not be the marketing scheme of your dreams. But the reality is it gets people talking about and buying American-caught fish. And that is nothing to roll your eyes at.
