Based in Southern California, Kelli Gillam is a freelance production accountant who has worked on a variety of film and television. Some of the productions that Kelli Gillam of Culver City, California has assisted with were Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch: Bering Sea Gold and the spinoff Deadliest Catch: Dungeon Cove.
Premiering in early 2016, the latter series highlighted Newport, Oregon’s family fishing industry and their race to harvest the sought-after Dungeness crab. Running parallel to the original Deadliest Catch series, then in its 12th year, the program brought focus to operations that do not work within a quota system, as in Alaska. Instead, boats set out to harvest the maximum number of crabs and fish possible during the season.
With the Pacific Northwest coast notoriously treacherous, this requires navigating complex, potentially deadly currents, sandbars, inclement weather, and large waves. The dangerousness of this environment was highlighted when one Newport fisherman featured in the first season suffered a serious injury operating a line on a boat the following year. In early 2019, a commercial Newport vessel capsized when crossing the Yaquina Bay Bar, which led to the loss of three fishermen’s lives.
