NEW YORK (CNNMoney) July 27, 2012 — The nation's most dangerous job, fishing for Alaskan king crab, has not only gotten safer but it's gotten more profitable, too.
Commercial fishing has long topped the Bureau of Labor Statistics' list of jobs with the most fatalities — and crabbing in the Alaskan waters is by far the most lethal form of fishing.
Thanks to new government rules, there has been only one death in the Alaskan crab fishery in the past six years — a significant improvement from the 1990s which saw an average of 7.3 deaths a year, according to Edward Poulsen, director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.
The industry, which was made famous by the Discovery show "Deadliest Catch," no longer engages in "fishing derbies" where fishermen rush to fill their quotas in a few scant days.
"The gun went off and everyone scrambled," Poulsen said. "Some boats loaded too many crab pots and capsized. Others pushed their crews to work too long."
During the derbies, some boats could pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crab — half their annual wage — in a few days, while latecomers could come out with nothing. Everyone fished as fast as they could until the quota for the entire fleet was reached.
Most crabbing takes place in the unforgiving Bering Sea. Ice can coat boat decks, 700-pound cages being winched aboard can lurch and sweep workers overboard. Even in a survival suit, designed to provide insulation from cold water, death can come before help arrives. About 80% of crab fishery fatalities are from drowning.
But in 2006, a new catch-share (also called a quota-share) system was put in place by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the State of Alaska, which co-manage the fishery.
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