Surviorman, Season 2, Ep 5: Alaska

I really like this guy and havent missed many shows, but this episode let me down. I find it hard to beleive he ate that fish and dint get sick. Even near the end of the show he ate some which had to be close to a week old.:thumbdn:

Try that with a can of tuna at your climate controlled house and see if you dont end up heaving your guts out. :barf:
 
Something occurred to me last night while watching the show. It didn't really have anything to do with last nights episode, but was more general about why he doesn't ever kill anything.

Lets suppose he is filming an episode in South Texas during Spring or Summer. I don't think Texas Parks and Wildlife would look too kindly on him if he speared a white tailed deer (or a blacktailed deer last night in Alaska) out of season with his big Rambo knife spear he made. Of course in a real survival situation you wouldn't care, since you would gladly pay the poaching ticket if it meant someone rescued you. However, he is not in a survival situation. He is filming a TV show and I don't think the governments in the area he was filming would buy the argument that he had to kill something out of season in order to survive, since he could easily just radio for help. While this wouldn't affect him killing a rabbit or something like that to eat, quotas and licenses in Africa are expensive so unless he arranged to obtain one, he probably couldn't legally kill a Thompson's Gazelle or some other small herbivore.
 
I have been watching Les since he first came on and am a big fan. I am sure that he understands the neccessity but I don't think he likes to kill animals for the sake of a TV show. Chris
 
I've only seen him trap one animal, I think it was a squirrel. Even when he did that I figured PITA would be up his rear, they most not cover squirrels under there umbrella.
But I'm thinking if Less went out and got him self a nice bambie for dinner and showed us how to smoke and store the meat for long term survival it may be his last show.
 
AustinTXShooter said:
Of course in a real survival situation you wouldn't care, since you would gladly pay the poaching ticket if it meant someone rescued you.
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You would have the doctrine of competeing harms on your side. Which means you can break a law to protect your life or serious injury. It would be the same as swerving into the left lane of a road to avoid an out of control truck from hitting you. Driving in the left lane is illegal but what cop would cite you for taking evasive action?

I would hope that Les Stroud would make his series a bit more realistic and grittier by at least getting a hunting or fishing license and shooting the show during the legal season using a primitive method(s).

In WA state you can't even collect seaweed w/o a license. If he shot that episode in WA he could have been busted for the eating the kelp or bladderwack.
 
B Finnigan said:
You would have the doctrine of competeing harms on your side. Which means you can break a law to protect your life or serious injury. It would be the same as swerving into the left lane of a road to avoid an out of control truck from hitting you. Driving in the left lane is illegal but what cop would cite you for taking evasive action?

I would hope that Les Stroud would make his series a bit more realistic and grittier by at least getting a hunting or fishing license and shooting the show during the legal season using a primitive method(s).

In WA state you can't even collect seaweed w/o a license. If he shot that episode in WA he could have been busted for the eating the kelp or bladderwack.
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I figured there would be some law like that, but I think my point is still valid. I wish he would actually catch something while fishing or kill something while hunting, but his techniques are so bad in both pursuits, I doubt it will ever happen.
 
runningboar said:
I don't think he likes to kill animals for the sake of a TV show. Chris
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I believe Runningboar and AusTXShooter are both right -- even Eddie Grylls has specifically NOT harvested game that was endangered or otherwise off-limits for someone not in a survival situation. He declined to harvest some kind of rattler in the Moab and a baby alligator in the Everglades.

Les has made similar comments about "If I was in a real survival situation, I would..." with regards to both hunting and doing things like cutting down live trees.
 
The Last Confederate said:
Didn't he snare a rabbit in the cold weather "plane crash" episode?
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Yep. He had the rabbit in that episode and the ground squirrel in the Canyonlands episode. In the GA swamp episode he ate really well, as he got a frog, a turtle and a rattlesnake. I think those were the only three episodes where he ate anything other than invertebrates.
 
I know he had a full kit in labrador but instead of all the suffering I would like to see a show where he had a full kit and was successful. Come on who would go sea kayaking around the Alaska coast with a dry suit but not even rudimentary fishing gear. He needs to do a show with a billy, siltarp, fire kit, 22 mag and fishing gear and lives high on the hog. :D Chris
 
runningboar said:
He needs to do a show with a billy, siltarp, fire kit, 22 mag and fishing gear and lives high on the hog. :D Chris
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You know how Discovery is always soliciting those stupid "spoof a Discovery show" videos from fans? The ones that end up on the Discovery Web site and show "Mike Rowe" falling in a backyard mud pit or some other such spoof?

A Les Stroud spoof would involve lots of harvested game, pristine camera angles, and careful use and maintenance of cutting tools! ;)
 
I would hope that Les Stroud would make his series a bit more realistic and grittier by at least getting a hunting or fishing license and shooting the show during the legal season using a primitive method(s).
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I wish he would make it more accurate by boiling his water and cooking what he does catch. I'd also like to see better improvised shelters and signalling devices (like distress signals such as signal fires or distress signals made from trees or tromped in the grass or snow).

You can last many weeks without food. Survival isn't hunting camp. If you think that the average survivor should be eating deer steaks by the third day, you're not being realistic. Hunting and fishing is something you do after a nice shelter and appropriate distress signals have been prepared. Primitive hunting and fishing skills are nice to have but most survival scenarios will not involved that.
 
nemoaz said:
Survival isn't hunting camp.
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Why not?

nemoaz said:
If you think that the average survivor should be eating deer steaks by the third day, you're not being realistic.
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The show is not realistic to begin with so why not make it fun, cedar plank roasted salmon steaks with wild dill, sounds good to me in a "survival" situation. Chris


Edit: a billy is a pot with a lid and a bail and a siltarp is an ultra light tarp made of nylon waterproofed with silicon. Chris
 
I know it isn't hunting camp and I don't expect him to be eating backstrap each episode, but he never gets anything substantial to eat. He has lots of nice film of various birds, but he never tries to hunt them. He has made successful traps and snares in the past, but he never tries that anymore. Until last nights episode, this year had consisted of him fasting for seven days, with little or no effort put into finding food.
 
AustinTXShooter said:
Yep. He had the rabbit in that episode and the ground squirrel in the Canyonlands episode. In the GA swamp episode he ate really well, as he got a frog, a turtle and a rattlesnake. I think those were the only three episodes where he ate anything other than invertebrates.
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in costa rica he speared a reef fish.
 
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