American fishing vessel, featured on the television receiver series “ Deadliest catch ”

F/V Northwestern is an alaskan crab, Pacific cod, and salmon tendering commercial fishing vessel featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. To date the Northwestern is the lone vessel to have featured on all 17 seasons of Deadliest Catch deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as the pilot series America’s Deadliest Season. The vessel is owned and operated by the Hansen kin of the state of matter of Washington with Sig Hansen serving as the vessel ‘s basal master .

history [edit ]

The F/V Northwestern, a western rigged boat, was constructed in 1977 at Marco Shipyards in Seattle, Washington for the lone determination of fishing King and Tanner Crab off of the coast of Alaska. [ 1 ] It was christened F/V Northwestern on 1977 November 5 by Snefryd Hansen, the wife of then-owner and captain Sverre Hansen. [ 2 ] The vessel is presently owned and operated by Sverre and Snefryd ‘s three sons : Sigurd ( Sig ), Norman, and Edgar Hansen. [ 3 ] Sig serves as the vessel ‘s primary master with his younger brother Edgar, and his daughter Mandy Hansen, besides running the boat on occasion. Edgar chiefly serves as the Northwestern ‘s deck party boss. Edgar besides served as easing captain and mastermind for several years, before Mandy took over as the full-time relief captain, and Norman took over as the chief engineer. [ 4 ]

Edgar Hansen In the 1980s the gravy boat was one of the first gear to fish opilio crab. Throughout the 1980s the Northwestern kept very interfering year round, fishing opilio crab louse, blue king crab, crimson king crab, and brown king crab at unlike times of the class. To keep up with the increasing demand for cancer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats needed to carry more pots ( steel box shaped traps that are used to fish for crab ). Rather than buy a fresh boat, the Hansen family decided to have the Northwestern extended twice. in the first place built at 108 feet ( 32.9 molarity ) with the ability to carry 156 pots, the Northwestern was extended to 118 feet ( 36.0 meter ) in 1987 to allow for 200 pots. In 1991, when the utmost crab pots a boat could carry was raised to 250, the Hansen ‘s again had the Northwestern lengthened, this time to 125 feet ( 38 m ). [ 5 ] today, in the IFQ system, they normally carry no more than 195 pots. The Hansen brothers worked aboard the Northwestern as deckhands throughout their childhood, and all three decided to make fishing their profession, joining a long argumentation of Hansen men making their survive as fishermen. Sig, the oldest of the three, took over as captain of the Northwestern full-time in 1990. Under his leadership, the Northwestern boasts an astonishing record of never having suffered a death at sea despite its home territory being the dangerous Alaskan crab grounds, where deaths average closely one fisherman per week during the center of its productive seasons .

current condition [edit ]

today, the Northwestern continues to fish crimson king crab, tanner crab, and opilio crab louse ; however, it is now one of few boats to engage in pot gull fish angstrom well, which was filmed for episodes of Deadliest Catch during the 2006 Opilio crab season. The Northwestern was one of the few vessels to fish for amobarbital sodium king cancer in 2009 after completing its crimson king crab season. During the summer, the vessel keeps busy tendering ( transporting pisces from vessels at sea to floating processors, allowing the fishing gravy boat to stay on the grounds preferably than make perennial trips back to port ) salmon and herring, normally under the command of Edgar Hansen. [ 5 ] The Northwestern is one of the most successful boats in the crab fish fleet. [ 6 ] It continues to meet its quota and bring in money for the crew and family ; the vessel won both the tonnage and price titles in both the final king crab bowler hat in 2005 and the final examination opilio crab bowler hat in 2006, and as a result, her share of the available quota under the newfangled IFQ fishing rules is among the largest in the evanesce. [ citation needed ] The vessel has become popular and very recognizable due to it being prominently featured in the Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch. [ 7 ]

In addition to the Hansen brothers, the remainder of the gang includes longtime deckhands Matt Bradley ( Edgar ‘s childhood acquaintance ), Nick Mavar, Jr. and Nick ‘s nephew, Jake Anderson. Jake earned full-share deckhand status on the Northwestern during the 2009 opilio temper, and continued to fish on the boat several more seasons before taking over as captain of the F/V Saga in 2014. Matt would besides leave the gravy boat on occasions as well and has since permanently joined Jake on the F/V Saga by the 2019 king cancer season. Karl Rasmussen, the grandson of one of the Northwestern ‘s quota leasers, joined the crew in 2014. Sig ‘s daughter Mandy, has fished on the boat during pink-orange season, and she had been an intermittent crew member during earlier seasons of the show. [ 8 ] Before the 2016 crimson king gripe season, Sig ‘s son-in-law, Clark Pederson ( Mandy ‘s husband ), became the latest to join the Northwestern gang. During the middle of the 2018 opilio season, Mandy has started training under her father to become the Northwestern ‘s relief captain. By the begin of the 2018 king crab season, she permanently joined the gang as full-time respite master and captain-in-training, with Sig grooming her to one day take over the family business. In the summer of 2019, Mandy and Clark alternated to run the boat, for pink-orange offer. During the gravy boat ‘s beginning trip, right before the begin of the 2019 red king crab season, Mandy took the boat out by herself for the first base time as captain, to set up storage pots out in the fishing grounds, before Sig came astir to take control of the gravy boat, for the season. In the summer of 2020, Mandy and Clark once again took manipulate of the Northwestern for salmon tender season. Mandy is besides responsible for hiring the crew for the boat. [ 9 ]

Non-Alaskan seafood [edit ]

The Hansen brothers, owners/operators of the Northwestern, endorsed a brand of russian King Crab being sold at discount rate chains such as Walmart. The decision to put the Northwestern name and colors on a non-Alaskan product has caused some controversy in the alaskan fish community, [ citation needed ] which the Hansen ‘s addressed in a November 2007 press liberation. [ 10 ] In the press release, the Hansen ‘s noted that 50-70 percentage of alaskan King Crab was purchased by Japan and never reached U.S. stores or restaurants ; by bringing russian King Crab to the american market, the Hansen ‘s hoped that the increase demand for King Crab would benefit the alaskan fish fleet by raising the price of King Crab overall .

In fiction [edit ]

The F/V Northwestern inspired the character Crabby the Boat in the film Cars 2 and was voiced by Sig Hansen. [ 11 ]

The comedy indicate South Park concisely spoofed the vessel and its workers in the episode “ Whale Whores “, when Stan was leading the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society .

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]