It brought an awareness to the public about the lobstering industry, both good and bad, just like it did for the Alaskan crab industry.
Agree about the awareness. Can't stomach the marketing and propaganda that Discovery Channel tried to pawn Lobster Wars as. Different fisheries, different people, different stories. The executives of Discovery Channel need to quit trying paintbrush strategies in order to get ratings and impress advertisers who pay exuberant prices. For weeks, Lobster Wars was hyped as, "If you like 'Catch' you'll love Lobster Wars." Nope I didn't, nor do many others.
Quit trying to corner the market Discovery Channel, the harder you're trying, the worse it gets.
And for the record, yes fisherman have a tough, nostalgic and unappreciated job. I attack neither the crabbers or the lobsterman who participate in these shows. I attack the ratings hungry executives who make money off their misfortunes and hardships just so they can bring it to a TV set near you every night.
Call me a "crab groupie". To me Deadliest Catch is a much better show with more dramatic scenes (bigger storms, waves, ice, etc). The payoff looks a little better after all the hard work they put in. For example seeing a full pot of crabs get dumped on the sorting table seems a little better than seeing a few lobster get thrown out of the pot.
That said, I still enjoyed the Lobster War show to see how fishing is done in a different part of the world. The mentality of the NE Lobster fishermen was rather different than what you see on the Bering Sea. It was interesting to see how territorial they are on an ocean.
I wouldn't mind if Discovery brought back the lobster show. It's a different show, if same format.
I'd also like to see them put some cameras on the dragger boats to hear their perspective. They get a lot of abuse (probably deserved) from the lobster guys (and gals).
I hope the show returns next year. I really enjoyed it. After a few weeks you feel like you're getting to know the crews a little bit and I'd like to see how the next season goes for the boats that didn't fair so well this time catching lobsters.
Best of luck to all the boats and I hope Discovery will bring it back in 2008.
