On Tuesday, Weather Channel will premiere Iceberg Hunters, the latest installation in its “Braving the Elements” series, and one that could give you a whole new level of respect for that bottle of water you’re never without — or the shot of vodka in your favorite libation.
The series follows the adventures of the Richards family — sporters of the world’s most endearingly curious dialect — who make their living in “Iceberg Alley,” the stretch of the northern Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland where enormous bergs of the ultra-pure ice coveted by water bottlers and vodka distilleries drift down from the Arctic Circle.
Whyman Richards, 54, is the captain of the Cape Richard, the 38-foot boat he built from scratch with his brother, Dale. A lifelong fisherman by trade, Whyman decided to expand his horizons to harvesting ice for a local water bottler and is proud of his dangerous vocation.
Dale Richards, 48, is Whyman’s brother whose job is to break down icebergs into smaller chunks with his rifle, then operate the crane that hauls the pieces out of the sea.
Travis Richards, 33, is Whyman’s eldest son, who left the family’s small Newfoundland town to study interior design. With a flexible schedule, Travis decides it’s time to learn the family trade and discovers that a college education will only get you so far when an iceberg is looming and you’re the new guy on the boat.
On the series premiere, “It’s a Good Day for Huntin’ Bergs,” the Cape Richard crew are hampered by forgotten equipment, fog and conflicting ideas about the best way to shoot an icerberg.
Check out preview videos here, then tune into Iceberg Hunters, Tuesdays at 9/8CT on The Weather Channel.
Photos: Weather Channel
I seen this show for the first time while on vacation this week, I loved it!!! so happy to see some fellow Newfounlands at work. I can’t believe some of the comments above, people are so stupid and will cut down anything they dont understand, next thing you know they will have some kind of global rights group come up here and ‘save the bergs’ foolish people lol
Regardless, that Travis Richards is good old fashioned Canadian eye candy. Do you really watch a show like this for the gripping story? Or the dandy dancing bears?
“I figure go large…” – Travis Richards. Best wishes to ya buddy!
Funny how they are filling the “pure” pieces of ice with thousands of pieces of fragmented lead…
The he11 are they doing knocking down OUR icebergs… Its the earths not theirs. The fuc7? Selfish pieces of $h1t. I hope the iceberg falls on them and disables them for life. Theyre making our future crap… Thanks a lot you idiots for tearing apart the planet we live on!
Another so-called reality show. I watch the Weather Channel daily for weather and happended across the episode in which the steering belt breaks, they don’t have a spare and are headed for certain death as their boat gets closer and closer to the iceberg. A call is placed to a brother to get out a new belt. But will he get there before the boat crashes into the iceberg. All this of course is being filmed by a crew on an adjacent boat! What idiot of a captain or crew member would not have at least one spare belt, most likely two, for something as serious as how to maneuver the boat. I know the film crew would have stepped in with a tow line to stop the boat from hitting the iceberg before the brother “gets there in the nick of time.” For all we know, with the way “reality” shows are produced, the film crew pulled the boat away from the iceberg while waiting for the brother to get there. Waste of time watching this show. Never agin.
Get a grip, idiots. Breaking up bergs that are already adrift hurts nothing. Idiotic that anyone would pay them good money to get it when you can purify any water totally clean by using what’s called reverse osmosis. If you drink bottled water, or drink high end vodka, you’re the ones that are paying for this. It’s all stupid, and bitching about it is stupier yet. want to bitch at me for calling you on your stupidity? have at it. I’ll fill my spam box with it.
Can’t believe people watch this stupid show,what a waste
of Time and animal habitat.
Is this not illegal
they sound like the hutterites. they said it was about two thousand dollars per trip. not bad for three guys with no special skills. and looks fun too. beautiful scenery!
Why don’t they leave the ice alone. Everyone knows were in gobal warming. Why are they taking ice from icebergs? And what habits are they taking fomr them animals that are already trying to survive. Disgusting.
Hunting Icebergs…should be a crime.
I hadn’t realized that there were rednecks all over the world…or that people at any level would be shooting guns at icebergs waiting for the ice to fall off…I think ice bergs are being under appreciated because people don’t realize that once the icebergs are all gone, we are toast!
I was left speechless…and dumfounded by these Newfoundlander’s…lifestyle and their lack intellect in their trade.
This Vodka company or any other company making product from these icebergs are only increasing the effects of global warming that are currently causing earth’s surface temperature to rise gradually year after year…to the point that the polar bears and the penguins have nearly become extinct…as a result of global warming caused from petro products and ultimately the petro dollar.
Now, people are shooting at the one thing, icebergs, who’s reflective characteristics were designed to save us from evaporating our water supply and overheating our asses right off the planet…
For Pete’s sake, get a grip. These are hard working men that work at ANYTHING to make a living. This is a nobility sorely lacking in today’s society; certainly not a concept embraced by people more concerned with ONE family harvesting 1/1000th of 1 iceberg than getting a real job.
Look folks, I hate to break it to you but there are NO penguins or polar bears making their homes on these bergs! The area and icebergs they are harvesting are quite small compared to the bergs that are utilized by wildlife, they also happen to be in the wrong part of the world and are not having one iota of impact on the temperature of the water. As far as the Newfoundlander’s “endangering” icebergs, well, that is the dumbest statement of them all…these icebergs are already well on their way to melting into …dun, dun, da…WATER! In short, while there are “rednecks” all over the world, as this is a state of mind not a matter of geography, saying that the tiny amount of ice that these men can fit on their little 38′ boat is adding to global warming would be like saying that the amount of air you can fit in a jar is endangering the atmosphere. Do your homework! This show has got to be a new low in stupid idea’s for a reality show. Don’t bother, unless you want to spend about 5 minuet’s doing a comedic breakdown on the perils of hunting the elusive, wily, and endangered wild icebergs of Newfoundland. I’ll take the tame version in my fridge!
there can,t be that much money in icebergs ? If there was more people would be doing it.
I watched this show for the first time sunday night when they broke down next to the iceberg, and as I was watching I was getting more and more pissed off.
Especially when the idiot guy said, “no we dont have another steering belt. We cant carry every spare part or we wouldn’t have room on the boat for anything else.”
If that isn’t the stupid thing I’ve ever heard. This captain is an a-hole and makes all us sailors look like idiots. Having extra belts is about as basic as having extra toilet paper on a boat. Shame on this show and you lost a potential fan.
I saw this show for the first time Tuesday. I can’t remember when I have enjoyed watching a program sooooo
much! Keep up the good work.
You need to fire the production crew.
You have an old man, who have NEVER used a net, tempting to grab 800@ of ice with a steel framed net, with an ALUMINUM shaft….. then when it breaks (No htsh, really?) you spend 20% of the sow in some garage with some dumb-ass old dude, the want to replace the shaft with another piece of aluminum conduit (used to run electrical wires)… the dope then WEAKENS the net’s steel frame to fit the aluminum conduit that he de-burred with a knife!!!!!! I would gladly take over responsibilities of this so called “shop” . Just might be too late,,,, after that, i think you may have lost 80% of blue collar workers.
BR,
VSM
Love the show but wish the know it all son would hush and show more respect
My family and I lived in St. Anthony a few years ago and know the Richards family quite well. We were thrilled to see them on this show. Hope there are many more episodes to come.
Rumor has it that Cynthia is less important.
Been to Newfoundland and seen the bergs. On the island,they have a distillery, a brewery and a winery, along with bottled water. All have some selection made with icebergs, and all are tasty.
I love Love LOVE this show! Makes me want to visit Newfoundland. Love the accent ! 🙂
distilling vodka from iceberg ice… Wonder which brand?
Iceberg hunters? Really? I can’t think of anything less important.