Cape Cod commercial fishermen are sticking it to bluefin tuna in an attempt to make a killing on these valuable creatures of the north Atlantic.
It’s all captured on the new reality-adventure series “Harpoon Hunters” premiering Friday (January 24) on Discovery Channel.
The show is the second basic-cable series on the derring-do of these intrepid tuna stalkers who use harpoons to land their tuna targets in a manner not unlike the legendary New England whalers of the 19th century.
The stakes are high for these 21st-century Ahabs, as they face a heavily regulated fishing “season” lasting just four weeks.
It’s a race against time as these fisher kings pursue their prey on small fishing craft, one of which is named Redrum -- “murder” spelled backwards and a word first introduced into the popular culture in the Stephen King horror novel and Stanley Kubrick movie “The Shining.”
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The quarry of this Redrum crew is the prized Atlantic bluefin weighing in at an average 550 pounds and worth up to $10,000 apiece, according to Discovery.
The weapon of choice in these high-stakes, high-voltage hunts is a 10-foot, electrified spear (photo above) capable of administering shock treatment to these great, delicious fish.
“Harpoon Hunters” is produced by Pilgrim Media Group led by Craig Piligian. The company first got its feet wet in the tuna-hunting space with Gloucester, Massachusetts-based “Wicked Tuna,” which ran for 12 seasons on NatGeo.
Pilgrim Media Group is a mega-producer of wide-ranging reality series on basic cable -- from the “Street Outlaws” franchise on Discovery to “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” on TLC.
The new “Harpoon Hunters” is another in a series of manly reality series on Discovery that have included “Deadliest Catch,” “Dirty Jobs” and “Bering Sea Gold.”
The tuna-hunting show “joins a pantheon of iconic Discovery series that follow maverick jobs in epic settings,” said Discovery Networks President Howard Lee of “Harpoon Hunters.”
“Armed with nothing but a spear and raw determination, these elite harpooners put everything on the line and it’s immensely thrilling to witness,” he said in a statement.
Immensely thrilling? Not if you’re an Atlantic bluefin tuna!