Russell Newberry–Dangerous Deckhand

Russell Newberry moved to Alaska in 1972 at the age of 9. His passion for crab fishing started in 1978 when he caught his first crab commercially aboard the all concrete fishing vessel “Granite Sea”. He continued to work in the summers as a dungeness crabber until he graduated from Homer High School in 1980. From there he wanted to further his education in Bozeman, Montana, but unfortunately, circumstances dictated a career change.

As a 24 year old, he landed his first Bering Sea crab job aboard the fishing vessel “Diamond Head”. Over the years, he developed his reputation as a hard working, dependable “crustacean excavator”.

In 2005, when a new individual quota system was implemented, the crabbing in Alaska was changed forever. The crab fleet was reduced from over 300 vessels down to approximately 75, due to political buyouts, quota combinations and quota leasings. With the condensed fishing fleet, many fisherman found themselves without work. In fact, it was calculated that over 1500 jobs were lost. Russ was caught in this snowball effect and was unemployed for much of 2005 and 2006. Then, for King Crab 2006, he landed himself a half share job aboard the F/V Time Bandit, one of Discovery Channel's featured vessels on their reality show Deadliest Catch. It was the show's third season. When the rest of the crew quit due to complications with the captains, he found himself propelled to a full share job. His Time Bandit endeavors have been documented on TV from the comical truck pranking to the dramatic save of Josh White, and also in the book "Time Bandit" by Malcolm McPherson, r.i.p,. where he plays a major role in the saving of Johnathan's smaller boat, the Fishin Fever.
2009 was a crazy year for Russell Newberry. He left port on the Time Bandit, only to find himself going back to port on another featured vessel the Wizard. When that opilio season was over he never heard from the Wizard again. So then onto a new featured vessel for King crab that same year called the Kodiak. Three crab vessels in one year! Three very different operations. Six to eight different captains! But one thing always stayed the same, the crew. Three very same crews. Always tired, always wet and always watchin each others backs.
Stay tuned for the new episodes starting April 13. Russ will go into more detail after the episodes have aired about life on three different boats, how he interacted with the crews and how each operation hugely differs from the others.

Russell wants to live his life so that his mother can say she very much enjoyed watching him grow up.