Bering Sea Gold (also known as Gold Divers in the UK) is a reality television series set in Nome, Alaska, on Norton Sound, that airs on Discovery Channel. It is from the creators of the Deadliest Catch reality TV show. It achieved the 3rd highest ratings for a Friday cable telecast.
The show is divided into the summer dredging season (aired in the spring), under the title Bering Sea Gold, and the spring dredging season (aired in the fall), under the title Bering Sea Gold: Under The Ice. For the first three seasons, this distinction held, in the 2015 4th season of the spring ice dredging season, the title card changed to “Bering Sea Gold”, making the title identical to the original summer dredging season show. This continued with the 2016 5th seasons.
The show follows boats equipped with various setups to achieve gold mining in a summertime, cold northern latitude, shallow water, ocean environment. The fleet each typically consists of a sluicing apparatus, a means of paydirt collection (dredge), and a cold-water-diving life support system. Conflict issues include choppy seas, poor underwater visibility, inconsistent fuel delivery, personnel issues, mining location rights, sufficient paydirt discovery, diver safety, and ocean-damaging equipment failures. Each season of episodes follow the current fleet of dredges.