Deadliest Catch is a documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

/reality

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

 television series produced by Original Productions

Original Productions

Original Productions is a television production company based in Burbank, CA. It was founded in 1999 by Thom Beers and was acquired by FremantleMedia in 2009 and made into a subsidiary....

 for the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

. It portrays the real life

Real life

Real life is a term usually used to denote actual human life lived by real people in contrast with the lives of fictional or fantasy characters.-Usage online and in fiction:On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world...

 events aboard fishing vessel

Fishing vessel

A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing....

s in the Bering Sea

Bering Sea

The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....

 during the Alaskan king crab and C. opilio

Chionoecetes

Chionoecetes is a genus of crabs that live in the northern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.Other names for crabs in this genus include "queen crab" and "spider crab" – they are known by different names in different areas of the world....

crab fishing seasons.

The Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska

Unalaska, Alaska

Unalaska is a city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off of mainland Alaska....

, is the base of operations for the fishing fleet

Fishing fleet

A fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing , or all fishing vessels of a country or region.Although fishing vessels are not formally organized as if they...

. The show's name derives from the inherent high risk of injury or death associated with the work.

Deadliest Catch premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005 and currently airs in over 150 countries.