TV Star Visits Palermo - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

TV Star Visits Palermo

How is drilling for oil like fishing for crabs?
One of the men whose family business has become world famous thanks to a reality TV show says there are many similarities between his fishing boat and the oil rigs scattered around western North Dakota.
Jim Olson reports on a visit to oil country by a star of the TV show "The Deadliest Catch."

Millions of people have come to know the boats and the men who make a living on them through the Discovery Channel's hit show The Deadliest Catch.  They are crab fishermen off the Alaskan coast - and almost a decade ago, they became famous because someone thought it might be interesting to follow these fishermen as they risk their lives at sea.

(Edgar Hansen, Deadliest Catch) ""

Now, through eight seasons on TV, Edgar Hansen and his brothers who co-own the Northwestern - one of the boats featured on the show - has become famous.  He says even on this visit to North Dakota - we caught up with him at the Palermo Bar and Grill - he gets the stares from people who recognize him.

(Edgar Hansen, Deadliest Catch) ""

But now that he's a big time star, he can just coast, right?

(Edgar Hansen, Deadliest Catch) ""

Still, he knows the exposure for crab fishing - and commercial fishing in general - has helped people understand how the food they eat gets to their plates.

(Edgar Hansen, Deadliest Catch) ""

Hansen is a spokesman for Chevron - he says the company's lubricants saved his engine a few years back - and visited North Dakota's oil country this week, meeting some of the people who risk their lives to provide energy to the nation.  He says the men and women of the oil patch are living the same lives as the boat people in The Deadliest Catch.

(Edgar Hansen, Deadliest Catch) ""

As for Hansen, he's headed back home now - spending time with his family and preparing for more harrowing work on his boat - work we'll no doubt see plenty of in the next season.  In Palermo, Jim Olson, KX News.

Hansen's visit to North Dakota was to promote Chevron products and was co-sponsored by Western Petroleum.