If you are a long-time reader of the Pontoonopedia blog, you will know how much I love the Deadliest Catch TV series. One thing that I have always wondered is how much the deckhands on Deadliest Catch make and earn as a monthly or annual salary. Here’s what I found out about the Deadliest Catch salary earnings.
According to the Alaska Fishing Employment Center, deckhands on the Deadliest Catch or in the king crab fishing industry can earn and make as much as $15,000 a month in salary. The king crab season lasts for 3 months, meaning they can make between $20,000 and $50,000 as a deckhand.
Deadliest Catch deckhand crab fishing salary
So that’s how much deckhands make on Deadliest Catch as a crab fishing salary, and it sounds like a lot of money. But as you will know, there is a huge amount of risk and hard work involved.
Deckhands on the Deadliest Catch can also earn more money outside of the king crab fishing season in Alaska by working in the snow crab industry in other months to increase their salary.
Based on that, it is not unheard of for deckhands on the Deadliest Catch to be bringing in annual salary wages in excess of $100,000 a year.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers trade association was quoted as saying:
“The information we have on crabbers’ income is anecdotal, but crewmen we surveyed said they’re making about $100,000 a year and captains twice that. That’s a lot more than a few years ago.”
In the video below you can see one of the captains on Deadliest catch talk about what you could earn on a crab fishing salary:
How much do captains make on the Deadliest Catch?
Captain Scott Campbell who was regularly featured captaining the Seabrooke boat was reported by the New York Times as being able to earn as much as $200,000 each year, sometimes even more.
He manages to earn this money by not just making money in the king crab season, but also by fishing for snow crabs once the main season is over.
And in the summer months he was said to use the Seabrooke to transfer wild salmon from the smaller fishing vessels to the large processers.
By doing so, he could increase his annual wage significantly.
Want to Know More? Read this research I conducted into the net worth of the captains including their annual salary earnings.
Do crabbing deckhands work all year around to make money?
Not all of them.
In fact, many are known to only work the three-month season in Alaska, and then take the rest of the year off once they have enough cash in the bank to sustain themselves and their family for 12 months.
Is it a dangerous job worth the money for a Deadliest Catch salary?
For a long time, it’s been reported that a deckhand or crab fisherman is the most dangerous job in the United States. For many years, commercial fishing and Alaskan king crab fishing in particular, has topped the league table of most dangerous jobs.
However, things are changing.
New government rulings have been put in place, and as a result the fatalities reporting in the 1990s have reduced. In fact, only one death has been recorded as a result of Alaskan crab fishing in the last six years.
In the 1990s, there were 7.3 deaths on average each year in this industry according to the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers trade association.
Is it worth the money that you can make as a deckhand on the Deadliest Catch though?
Not for me it’s not!
The last word…
It’s a dirty and dangerous job, and someone has got to do it. And there will always be people willing to earn a Deadliest Catch deckhand and crab fishing salary compared to what you might get paid for a more traditional job.
I don’t think it’s something I would ever have the balls to do, so I won’t be looking for career change anytime soon!
