Since we started this website, we have been asked to provide “Capt. Phil” T-shirts for sale. So, we’ve finally tracked down Phil and took a couple of photos to create these designs.
Please visit the forum and vote for your favorite design. Once the voting is finished, we will sell that design here on the website.
Capt. Phil threw out the first pitch for the Aquasox baseball game last night in Everett, Washington. It was a beautiful night and the park was filled with fans of the “Deadliest Catch”. Capt. Phil signed autographs before and after the game. Also there from the show was Capt. Greg Moncrief and his wife Ragnhild from the “Farwest Leader”.
More than 1000 dollars was raised that evening for the Seattle Fishermen’s Memorial.
Capt. Phi appeared with other Captains of the “Deadliest Catch” for a good cause. Captains Larry Hendricks and Sig Hansen, born and bred in Ballard, and fellow crab boat captain Phil Harris, joined in to answer questions and sign autographs. T-shirts were sold to benefit the “Seattle Fishermens’s Memorial”, a charitable organization devoted to promoting safety in the fishing fleets and easing the emotional and financial burden of surviving family members of fishermen lost at sea.
Pub crawl attracts fans of Alaska-based TV show
By LEILA KHEIRY
Daily News Staff Writer
A few of Alaska’s most famous crab fishermen caroused with Ketchikan residents Saturday night when three boat captains featured on the Discovery Channel show “The Deadliest Catch” participated in a promotional pub crawl.
Sea Star captain Larry Hendricks gets his shirt autographed by Cornelia Marie skipper Phil Harris during a promotional pub crawl featuring crab fishermen from the Discovery Channel show “The Deadliest Catch.” Kenny Hendricks, red vest, a Sea Star crew member for 35 years, looks at 7-year-old Bradley Walker, who waits for his shirt to get autographed. On the far right, Jerry Tilley, Aleutian Ballad skipper, signs a hat outside Fat Stan’s Saturday night. Staff photo by Hall Anderson
Captains Phil Harris, Larry Hendricks and Jerry “Corky” Tilley visited three bars Saturday night: Fat Stan’s, the Arctic Bar and First City Saloon, where they shook hands, answered fans’ questions and signed autographs on everything from T-shirts and hats to beer glasses.
Hendricks and Harris are co-owners of the Sea Star, a Bering Sea crabbing boat featured on the show in a previous season. That boat now is based in Ketchikan as a tourist attraction. Tilley runs The Aleutian Ballad, another crabbing boat from the show that recently started tours in Ketchikan.
The captains arrived at their first stop — Fat Stan’s — a little late, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind, as people immediately mobbed the three celebrities, taking photos and recording the event on video.
Some residents even brought their children to the smoke-free pub. Among the younger fans was 7-year-old Bradley Walker, who looked star-struck as Harris signed his T-shirt and posed for a photo with the boy.
When asked whether he liked the show, Bradley’s eyes widened as he answered, “Oh, yeah!”
Bradley said he particularly likes the name of the show, and said his favorite captains are Hendricks, Harris and Sig Hansen, who was not in town Saturday.
Bradley added that he would like to try crab fishing when he gets older.
In between autographs, Tilley said that, when it all started, he didn’t imagine the show would become as popular as it has.
Tilley said it was a little strange at first having a camera crew on board while trying to fish.
“It was really awkward,” he said, and the fishermen tended to freeze up in front of the cameras.
After a while, though, Tilley said they all basically ignored the film crews.
“They were just there, like wallpaper,” he said.
Harris, known from the show in part for his heated curse-filled tirades, was gracious with the fans on Saturday, signing all sorts of objects while chain-smoking outside of Fat Stan’s. He said the response to the show has been huge from the beginning.
Harris said he’s been a regular visitor to Ketchikan for a long time, bringing his fishing boat, the Cornelia Marie, here every couple of years for maintenance work at the shipyard.
“I love Ketchikan,” Harris said. “Alaska Ship and Drydock is the best shipyard in the world.”
The pub crawl was sponsored by Alaskan Brewing Company, which handed out free T-shirts and hats.
Merchandise Manager Nancy Woizeschke of Alaskan Brewing Company said the company hoped to promote the idea that nothing goes better with Alaska crab than Alaska beer.
She said she knew Harris was coming to Ketchikan anyway, which prompted her to organize a pint night at First City Saloon. The idea grew to a pub crawl, she said, because other bars wanted to participate.
The Discovery Channel show, which premiered in 2005 and finished up its third season on June 19, is a reality show that follows several Bering Sea crab fishermen. It highlights the danger of fishing in the open sea in bad weather and freezing temperatures.
Local crab fisherman Larry Jackson was at Fat Stan’s on Saturday, and said the show is pretty accurate, albeit slightly sensationalized.
The crew dynamics shown are correct, he said, such as the blame everyone places on the captain when fishing is poor. However, he said, while he’s only seen one or two episodes, he thought the show doesn’t really indicate how “mind-numbing” crab fishing can be.
“The work is miserable,” he said.
Jackson has not fished in the Bering Sea, he said. His grounds are the calmer water of Southeast, where he has hunted for Dungeness crab for about 20 years. He also leads charter fishing expeditions in the summer months.
Jackson said the interest in the show is huge. Summer customers often ask what he does in the winter, he said, and when he tells them he fishes for crab, they always ask about the show.
Jackson said he gets a little tired of answering those kinds of questions, so “now I say I watch soap operas and eat bonbons.
The Cornelia Marie has finished salmon tendering in Bristol Bay and is now back in it’s home port of Kodiak, Alaska. Captain Phil is back home in Washington state enjoying the rest of the summer. The crew has been invited to a lot of events and now have a full schedule of appearances in August. This poster is for an event in Chicago, IL, but there are many more around the country. Please check Phil’s schedule for more dates.
“It’s important to have people aware of what is going on with catching crab in the Bering Sea,” said Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie.”
Supply meets demand at Global Food Alaska
By JOSEPH ROBERTIA
Peninsula ClarionThere’s nothing fishy about the Global Food Alaska 2007 conference and trade show that began Wednesday and continues today at the Soldotna Sports Center.
“This is not a typical trade show. This is a completely different animal,” said Robin Richardson, member manager of Global Food Collaborative LLC, one of sponsors of the event.
Rather than consumers buying small amounts of a product as with other trade shows, Richardson said the purpose of this event was to get those involved with Alaska’s supply chain of food, beverage and bio-products to connect, communicate and collaborate with each other.
“We don’t have vendors looking to sell salsa. Our vendors are looking to find a buyer that wants to use their salsa as a base ingredient in a recipe. They’re looking for a buyer to form a long-term, sustainable business relationship with,” she said.
The event brought together roughly 320 vendors and buyers, some small, local family-owned business, others huge, multinational entities. There were fishermen, seafood processors, ice packers, transporters, importers and exporters, sellers and buyers, and government organizations, to name just a few groups in attendance.
“It runs the gamut,” said Rick Roeske, program manager for Cook Inlet Salmon Brand, another sponsor of the event.
Roeske added that having so many varied, but interrelated entities under one roof served as a valuable opportunity to learn from each other and collaborate on ways to maximize generating sustainable business and economic developments from Alaska’s bounty.
“People Outside are kind of removed from the food source, but this gives national and international buyers a chance to visit Alaska, sit down and ask questions about the process from harvest to market. And, with it being closed to the public, sellers and buyers can — in a non-stress environment — discuss what is done, negotiate prices and strike deals,” he said.
Sean Crosby, of Kenai River Seafoods, said attending the event was beneficial to his organization.
“It’s a great deal for us as producers and sellers, because there are a lot of buyers, packagers and transporting companies here, so we’re getting exposure to all the people we need to talk to in order to do business,” Crosby said.
While some came looking to forge business deals, some participating in the event — such as the crab boat captains of the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” — said they came to discuss their roles working in the seafood industry.
“It’s important to have people aware of what is going on with catching crab in the Bering Sea,” said Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie.
Harris said viewers of the show may learn a lot about crab fishing, but they’re only getting half the story.
“They don’t get to see the politics and they’re are a lot of politics to crab fishing,” he said.
Larry Hendricks, captain of the Sea Star in season one of the reality show, said he was also interested in informing people that crab fishing is a sustainable and renewable industry that is being challenged by crab from other countries, caught by fishermen that may not abide by the same standards as American fishermen.
“We follow regulations, we use methods to better target select species, and we harvest responsibly so the product will stay sustainable for generations to come. But, foreign importers are selling back to America crab caught by fishermen from other places — such as Russia — that aren’t held to the same standards, so we’d like to see crab become a certified fish product, similar to the way Angus beef is a certified beef
Rick Roeske said based on the success of the event, he was hoping it would become a regular occurrence.
“We’d like to do this every two years,” Roeske said.
The Global Food Alaska 2007 conference and tradeshow continues today beginning at 10 a.m. The public will be admitted from 3 to 5 p.m. for a $10 admission.
Joseph Robertia can be reached at joseph.robertia@peninsulaclarion.com.
