Surviorman, Season 2, Ep 5: Alaska

AustinTXShooter said:
but he never gets anything substantial to eat.
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The point about not killing anything just becuase he's only hungry and it's only TV has been made, but there is another one that I think a lot of people are forgetting. Most of us, if we are going any significant distance off the blacktop, carry a certain amount of equipment with us and are proficient with the equipment. As a result, if we have our gear with us, unless we are hurt it usually isn't a real survival situation. Instead, it is a camping/hunting trip that came as a surprise to us, and we walk out in the morning and laugh at ourselves for whatever we did wrong.

Les doesn't carry very much. When things go wrong, we won't have all our gear with us becuase if we did, things would be going according to plan. Not plan A, or B, or even M-42-slash-Aleph-J, but we have a contingency plan and the means to execute it. A multi or SAK, maybe a fixed blade, maybe some kind of fire lighter, and what we are wearing and can scrounge isn't all of our gear in most cases. That is when it isn't a camping/hunting trip, but a survival scenario.
 
Although like the rest of us I am a fan of Les, I still find Season 1 better. If only because regardless of episode (except maybe for at sea survival) he always carried less gear. Somehow the lone multitool appeals to me more than multi+SAK+FB+axe, etc.

Back to Season 2, Alaska. I was surprised he didn't carry a firearm like he did in the Arctic and for the same reasons. Although I had some of the same concerns you folks have mentioned I still enjoyed it.
 
AustinTXShooter said:
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.
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DING DING DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!

a LOT of people on the survivorman forums dont understand this. they are always wining about "starvingman" and dont seem to understand the idea that he is still bound by local laws on these expeditions.

They reported an instance during the Alaska episode where some DNR officers stumbled on him and fined him for using those nets without a commercial fishing license. something like $2,800.

Yes in a true survival situation you would be OK, but these are instructional ventures and doing 1/2 the things everyone b*tches about, "he should do this" , would get him in trouble.

This could be even worse in a third world African nation, where an official can hold you for anything, or charge whatever obscene amount he things he can squeeze out of you. When your in South Africa, or Costa Rica, or any similar dirt hole country you stay on your BEST behavior. You dont go around doing retarded things and skeeving off the locals.
 
mr.trooper said:
DING DING DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!

a LOT of people on the survivorman forums dont understand this. they are always wining about "starvingman" and dont seem to understand the idea that he is still bound by local laws on these expeditions.

They reported an instance during the Alaska episode where some DNR officers stumbled on him and fined him for using those nets without a commercial fishing license. something like $2,800.

Yes in a true survival situation you would be OK, but these are instructional ventures and doing 1/2 the things everyone b*tches about, "he should do this" , would get him in trouble.

This could be even worse in a third world African nation, where an official can hold you for anything, or charge whatever obscene amount he things he can squeeze out of you. When your in South Africa, or Costa Rica, or any similar dirt hole country you stay on your BEST behavior. You dont go around doing retarded things and skeeving off the locals.
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This goes also for those of you who include nets, firearms, snares and traps, fishing equipment etc. in your gear while out practicing. Here, simple posession of a device in habitat is evidence of intent to use it to harvest wildlife whether you actually use it or not. Confiscation laws being what they are nowdays, you could lose not only your device, but you whole kit and the horse you rode in on (vehicle), as well as a sizable portion of income. Sad, but true.

Codger
 
He was fined for not having a commercial filming license, not commercial fishing license. Apparently you have to have a permit to film commercially in any national park. It seems to me that he would need a fishing license as well, but I haven't seen anything on him not having one of those.
 
mr.trooper said:
they are always wining about "starvingman"
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Why doesn't he just order room service? Bear "I'm not a survival expert but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" Grylls always seemed clean and well fed.

dont seem to understand the idea that he is still bound by local laws on these expeditions.
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and they don't seem to understand that food isn't really even much of a consideration for the first two weeks of a survival situation. Sure you get it if you can, but you will last at least a month with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING so long as you have a decent supply of water.

I imagine that many people would make the same mistake that occurred in "The Edge"--Hollywood, I know, but useful to illustrate a point-- trying to catch a few ounces of squirrel meat when they should have been making large distress signals which could have been seen from the air by the SAR helicopter. Signalling, shelter and water are priorities. Food isn't.
 
nemoaz said:
useful to illustrate a point-- trying to catch a few ounces of squirrel meat when they should have been making large distress signals which could have been seen from the air by the SAR helicopter. Signalling, shelter and water are priorities. Food isn't.
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Very very true. I hear alot about people thinking long term survival, while thats good in some cases, in most its not needed.
 
Fonly said:
Very very true. I hear alot about people thinking long term survival, while thats good in some cases, in most its not needed.
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Another thing to consider with respect to that, is many of us are using our kits for go bags, or INCH bags even. that type of scenario needs to be geared for the long term.

But i agree with you. for a vacation pack or something its simply not needed.
 
nemoaz said:
...food isn't really even much of a consideration for the first two weeks of a survival situation...
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The rule of Three: Three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food.

Les often talks about his energy levels and boost he gets from his one meal a week. I would put food near the top of any survival situation for the energy it provides.

What I didn't understand about this ep was 1. he found a great place for veggies that he said he would return to again and again, yet he still ate that old piece of fish. It looked like he could have had a full stomach if he wanted one just on the local plants. 2. Too many uses for that glass bottle to break it like he did.

I do not think the local park rangers could have given him a ticket for illegal fishing. They would have been laughing too hard to write it. That was the worst attempt at a gill net I have ever seen. That looked like a trawl net to me. Maybe he would have had better luck with a spear. Maybe he could have used the net to channel the fish.
 
In reading his online blog, he says that he went back each day to the area where he got the aquatic plants. I guess they just didn't show it on television. I realize that he doesn't need necessarily need the animals that he is hunting in order to survive, I just wish that if he is going to spend his time hunting, he would actually kill something every once in a while.
 
In this episode he seems to imply that one can create fire indefinitely with a tool such as the fire piston or (I'm assuming) a fire steel. Not necessarily true IMHO because I believe that most fire pistons have parts that will wear out such as a rubber seal or some needed lubricant. My fire steels are supposedly good for about 3000 strikes. Does any body know how this would compare to a full sized bic lighter for example. Also are there any means of starting fire that one could use indefinitely without having to visit civilization at any point ( other than a hand drill which could be reproduced continuously?) ??? -DT
 
I've mentioned elsewhere about the need for licenses for fishing, hunting, and trapping even if it's just incidental or "practice". There is usually an all-year season for some small game and nongame. If Les is going to do it right, it's easy to stay legal. I don't see why it would cause outrage to do what many of us do for sport.

Aside from that, I suspect he just went along with the NPS on the fine. It would be extremely difficult for them to make a case for Commercial Filming in his method- filming himself camping out. Lots of guys film their hunting and fishing that end up on outdoor TV. They aren't MGM and a cast of thousands tearing up the countryside or exploding cars. Jeez.:) ss.
 
My thought was he would have done better using the net, rope, and old fish to catch the gulls. Are they protected? Seem like flying vermin to me, but roasting one on a spit would make them worth something.
 
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