GLOUCESTER — Every episode of “Wicked Tuna” followed a singular quest: fishermen attempting to hunt and kill a giant bluefin tuna, one of the grand animals of the ocean that can weigh upwards of 1,000 pounds.
It is as primal as allowed in the modern story of man versus beast. Certainly on television. And definitely on a network that is now owned by Disney.
But after 13 years of huge ratings, National Geographic Channel recently announced it would not renew its most popular show, the Gloucester-set phenomenon that made stars of a cast of local captains who took on that hunt for a living, and was a tourism boon for Cape Ann.
The news has been unwelcome for many in Gloucester, particularly the captains, who had no desire for the show to end and say they’ve received no explanation from the network as to why it was canceled.
“It was Nat Geo’s number one show for 13 years, nationally and internationally,” said captain Dave Marciano, one of the stars of the show. “It’s not like the ratings tanked. It makes no sense, other than to say Disney bought Nat Geo a few years ago.”
The network, in a release announcing the end of the show, did not give a reason, and instead thanked the cast, fans, and Gloucester community.
As the news of the cancellation spread through the city, along with theories why, there was disappointment, but also appreciation for all the show brought to America’s oldest fishing port.
“I’m just a crazy fisherman like so many others in Gloucester, and I was handed the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Marciano, the captain of the Hard Merchandise Too, whose endless smoking and swearing — often at his son, who is another captain on the show — belied a sweetness that made him a fan favorite.
He recently opened a retail space right on Gloucester Harbor, Angelica Seafoods, to sell locally caught fish, including meat from his own deck. But most of the shop is devoted to selling Captain Dave Marciano merchandise, including bobbleheads and koozies and clothing and talking key chains, with his catchphrases such as “This spot is so secret even the fish don’t know about it.”
The tourism impact from the unusually long run has been immense for this Cape Ann city. Arriving a decade after the blockbuster movie “The Perfect Storm” reintroduced the world to the city’s famed fishing fleet, “Wicked Tuna” continued the momentum, yet made it current, with working captains you could meet on the docks.
“It took viewers behind the scenes of the modern industry, not just the fishing but also the hard work and risks that go into it,” said Steve Buckley, CEO of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, who said people stop at the chamber’s downtown Gloucester office all the time asking where they can find the boats.
“As soon as it popped up on TV, we started seeing traffic from people who wanted to see the boats and meet the captains,” said Tobin Dominick, one of the owners of Cape Ann’s Marina Resort, where several of the tuna boats are docked, including the popular FV-Tuna.com and Wicked Pissah. “We’ve had people from literally all over the world come to the marina, stay at the resort, book a charter with one of the captains, or just take photos and buy a T-shirt in the gift shop.”
Indeed, there are shops all over Gloucester that sell “Wicked Tuna” merchandise, including at the Gloucester House, a waterfront restaurant that has a couple of the boats docked behind it.
“I’ve had people in here from Germany, Denmark, Australia, you name it,” said Eleanor Curcuru, who works at the Gloucester House gift shop, which is loaded with merchandise for nearly every boat on the show. “And the captains are so good with the fans. People will be nervous about bothering them, but I’ll say, ‘Go down and say hello.’ And next thing you know they’re on the boat taking pictures together and chatting.”
It wasn’t just Gloucester and the captains that got a huge boost from the show. Tuna fishing has boomed in popularity since “Wicked Tuna” went on the air.
“Atlantic bluefin are the biggest of all the tuna, and I’ve traveled all over the world and met fishermen who revere the guys who go out and catch them,” said Molly Lutcavage, a Gloucester-based scientist and founder of the Large Pelagics Research Center. “Now everyone wants to be a bluefin fisherman. All you need to do is go out to a bar in Gloucester and you’ll see all the posturing and bellowing about who caught the biggest fish.”
On recent seasons, the show added its first female captain, Michelle Cicale from Hampton, N.H.
“It was very cool to go on the show as a woman, because there aren’t many in the industry,” Cicale said by phone while out on a charter on her boat No Limits, something she, and the other captains, are hoping will fill up their time now that the show has ended. “It was so amazing to go down to Gloucester, and everywhere you look it’s all ‘Wicked Tuna’ stuff, and you meet all these people who had come to Gloucester just to see us.”
But Cicale, like many others, said her hope was that the show was not over forever. Several people involved with the show said they are hoping it will get picked up by another network or be reborn in a different form.
“The fans are there and the fish are there, and you’d think there’s someone out there who still wants to make money with that,” said Marciano. “But if my 15 minutes are up, it lasted 13 years, and I’m very proud to have been a part of it.”
Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @billy_baker.