Attention All Idjits (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kodiak: for sale, house, promotional)

[Metlakatla]

Alaska Crab Fishing Adventure Kodiak Island Tanner Crab | eBay

WTF.

Here's your chance to work on a crab boat. I think I'll be following suit next year and putting crew positions up for sale on eBay et al.

[Dakster]

Tom Sawyer would be proud... Not only getting someone to do the work for you, but getting them to PAY YOU for the chance to do the work for them.

Met - You might make more money selling spots at $20k a pop then you actually make doing the work...

[globetraveler]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Alaska Crab Fishing Adventure Kodiak Island Tanner Crab | eBay

WTF.

Here's your chance to work on a crab boat. I think I'll be following suit next year and putting crew positions up for sale on eBay et al.

You do realize it's not for a working crew spot, right? The winner gets to tag along and "watch the crew set and retrieve crab pots and hang out in the wheel house with the Captain"

This isn't the first time someone offered a spot to hang out on a crab boat:
Crabwizard - Henry Weinhard's Greenhorn Challenge Videos

While it's not something I would like to do, I imagine with the popularity of the Deadliest Catch, there are folks that are willing to bid for this. It's a fundraiser for a non-profit, The Kodiak Arts Council. Here is their press release:
http://www.kodiakartscouncil.org/fil...gAdventure.pdf

[Metlakatla]

You do realize it's not for a working crew spot, right? The winner gets to tag along and "watch the crew set and retrieve crab pots and hang out in the wheel house with the Captain"

Yes, I do realize that. Imagine that. I also realize that a working boat is no place for sightseers. Captains do a bit more than "hang out in the wheelhouse," by the way.

I can see how the charity slant would justify it for some, but it doesn't work for me.

[globetraveler]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Yes, I do realize that. Imagine that. I also realize that a working boat is no place for sightseers. Captains do a bit more than "hang out in the wheelhouse," by the way.

I can see how the charity slant would justify it for some, but it doesn't work for me.

The "hang out in the wheelhouse" quote was from the eBay posting. I suggest you contact the Kodiak Arts Council and Captain Tim Abena (F/V Big Blue) directly and inform them of your concerns about having a sightseer hang out in the wheelhouse with the captain or spend time observing a working crew on a crab boat.

Your original post suggested that this eBay auction was some sort of bidding for actual work on a crab boat. After looking at the auction listing and reading the press release, that is clearly not the case.

[Metlakatla]

Not exactly; my point was that so many people are hot to get on a crab boat and that their only real chance to do so is to buy a trip; I hope whoever gets it has fun sipping lattes in the wheelhouse with the captain. It's their boat and they can certainly do as they please, just like I can comment on the stupidity of their decision to do so. Personally, as someone who does know a little about commercial fishing, I think it's flat out stupid. Having greenhorns on a crab boat in any capacity puts everyone in danger, and it isn't worth it to throw a little change to the Kodiak Arts Council; that's what tax write offs are for.

I think you'd have to understand (commercial) fishing at least marginally to be able to get the irony that some of us see in crab fishing becoming a tourist attraction.

These things aren't pleasure cruises. Things can and do get really bad really fast out there, and captains need to put the safety of their crew above all else rather than babysitting tourists.

[globetraveler]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Not exactly; my point was that so many people are hot to get on a crab boat that their only real chance to do so is to buy a trip; I hope whoever gets it has fun sipping lattes in the wheelhouse with the captain. It's their boat and they can certainly do as they please, just like I can comment on the stupidity of their decision to do so. Personally, as someone who does know a little about commercial fishing, I think it's flat out stupid.

I think you'd have to understand (commercial) fishing at least marginally to be able to get the irony that some of us see in crab fishing becoming a tourist attraction.

These things aren't pleasure cruises.

I guess I misunderstood your first post. When you stated, "Here's your chance to work on a crab boat" and that you were thinking about putting up your crew positions next year for auction, I thought you were stating this auction was for work as a paid crew member. I apologize for the misinterpretation.

Believe me; I don't get the attraction for someone to want to do this. I could think of a host of other things to better spend my money and time off on. I also don't have a clue of what commercial fishing is like, so when you stated you had problems with the auction, my only suggestion was to talk to the folks putting in on. Both you and them are the experts on why or why not this is a bad idea.

In the same line of thinking, last year at an Anchorage Aces game, there was a contest where the winner would get to ride up to the North Slope and back with a Carlile Transportation Driver, one of the hauling companies featured on "Ice Road Truckers". A bunch of us looked around at each other and said, "That’s a punishment, not a prize"

It seems with adventure tourism and thrill seekers on one side looking for new thrills and crab boat captains and crew members working as paid reality TV stars on the other, this type of adventure auction was bound to happen.

[Metlakatla]

No, I realized that it wasn't for a paid crew position, but their wording about living like a crab fisherman or some such threw me into thinking they might be allowed to help pull crab pots. Doesn't matter if that's the case or not; I was aware that the captain wouldn't be replacing any actual crew members with anyone who wins the auction.

This is a snow-crabbing trip, by the way, which is a bit tamer than king crab runs, and regulations put into place in recent years have resulted in safer conditions in the Bering sea.

I have no intention of contacting the captain involved here; this is his call, just like it's my call to think that everyone involved in this is an idiot, including the Kodiak Arts Council. This crap will probably be happening more and more until all of Alaska resembles a Disney set, sort of like the way that Skagway looks these days, with idjits crawling all over every corner of the state tripping over themselves to have a reality tv experience.

[globetraveler]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

This crap will probably be happening more and more until all of Alaska resembles a Disney set, sort of like the way that Skagway looks these days, with idjits crawling all over every corner of the state tripping over themselves to have a reality tv experience.

I can't argue with you on this one. Heck, I still can't figure out the rabid fascination with all the reality shows. I know, money wise, they are an easy mark for the production companies. You don't have to pay for a huge production staff or hollywood actor salaries. You just give some folks a few bucks and follow them with a film crew. I just don't understand how so many of them do that well.

[Metlakatla]

I think that Deadliest Catch was a pretty good program and that some of the others are probably all right, but I don't watch much television. Most of them are probably crap. It's been said over and over on this forum that these shows wouldn't exist if people didn't watch them, but that isn't exactly the truth. The state of Alaska subsidizes these shows to a substantial extent.

'Bering Sea Gold' cashing in on state film subsidies? | Alaska Dispatch

Some of the worst of the reality shows are almost, if not completely, bought and paid for with state money:

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - entry Bristol Palin TV show draws 354 348 state subsidy

Many of these programs ^^^ make no money in their own right and probably don't even make much of an effort to produce quality and I'm sure that some of them know they'll only be around for one season. They're there because the subsidies can be generous. I'm not sure what the rationale is for the government to be paying for this; at one time they may have thought that doing so would increase tourism, but it's gotten out of control. I somehow doubt that the above-mentioned program increased travel to the state -- probably more the other way around (I can imagine that anyone living in Wasilla with young sons fled if they possibly could since there are still a couple of young Palin females on the prowl).

This is the main reason why there are so many of these shows -- because the state's paying for them. It's a racket, and these marginal production companies are quite aware of that. The state needs to stop funding these reality programs and let the best ones survive because people actually want to see them.