All stations, all stations. This is Coast Guard cutter Kimble. Dutch Harbor. Break.
Kimble, I'll be on your side for just a little bit.
Understand you'll be hanging out off our quarters.
Copy.
What's the Coast Guard cutter doing out here?
They're not messing around this year.
Nobody is.
I'm glad that big boat is on our side.
Gonna have to be sharp.
[Newsreader] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
the decrease in regulation worldwide,
spurred on a new epidemic.
Illegal and unreported fishing.
These vessels, predominantly from China as well as Russia
cost the global economy over $10 billion annually.
[narrator] One week before the start of the fall 2022 season,
Dutch Harbor captains and crews face a new threat.
An armada of unsanctioned fishermen and foreign invaders.
Illegal vessels come in and catch our crab. There's no rules for them.
[narrator] Turning their sights to the Bering Sea.
Now, captains set their strategies
for the season's quota announcements.
Just came out an hour ago.
1.163 million pounds.
$10 a pound.
[narrator] The opening of the eastern bairdi fishery.
Eastern we used to call the dinner plates.
Big, nice, clean crab.
I would bet it makes people that normally wouldn't break the law, break the law.
It's survival.
[narrator] And the new generation of crabber that comes with it.
I'm really hoping that I could end up being a captain out here.
You think you've got what it takes?
I don't have the luxury to fail.
Am I going to rob crab from you? I don't know.
You don't want to respect me? That's fine.
[narrator] Skippers reveal new insights.
We want to do what's best for the boat.
But now that I have a daughter, I have to think differently.
[narrator] Ready themselves for months of torment.
I'm trying to understand how we can work together.
This is a [bleep] disaster.
[narrator] And assess rumors of foreign threats.
[newsreader] While on patrol,
the US Coast Guard cutter encountered a Chinese missile cruiser
and a Russian destroyer on the Bering Sea.
They're shooting missiles at us.
Right into American waters.
[narrator] The fleet summons derby day legends.
Andy Hillstrand was flying to the docks.
Forges bonds with allies.
Welcome to the Bering Sea, Linda Greenlaw.
Thank you. I think it's worth the risk.
[narrator] To make a stand and defend America.
USA! USA!
[yelling]
So what are we going to do?
We're going to fight.
Did you hear they found, uh, there was a Russian vessel and a Chinese vessel out west?
That's not rumor, that's a fact.
Out west.
I mean, now we've got, you know, an extra season to fish.
We've got bairdi east and west.
We've got a little more on the table.
People are getting nervous about trawlers,
long line boats,
different types of vessels that are invading the Alaskan waters.
Yeah. We know, especially in the wheelhouse, when something's not right.
Well, if he's not answering on a radio
or all of a sudden, their little deck lights go off or something like that,
you know you're being shady.
It's one of two things.
It's either a foreign vessel
or a sea going hot fishing.
[laughs] You have a little way of clicking them off.
[laughs]
That's true.
Well, last year, we had a lot of hurdles.
We can learn from that.
That's for sure.
We have about 1.5 million pounds of quota to catch.
Big risk, big reward.
[narrator] Over one year ago, the closure of Red King Crab
forced most of the fleet to adapt to new fisheries.
But for highliner Rip Carlton,
the shutdown brought record high Golden King prices.
But that reward
Watch out, Francis. Don't stand there.
Oh, no!
came with risk.
You know, Rip, I've got to ask.
We lost Todd.
And everybody felt that one.
You came back.
And I'm not going to say you shook it off, because I know you didn't.
Yeah.
But how in the hell did you make it back and keep going?
Todd, he was tough as nails.
That's something you never prepare for.
But if it was me,
and I was lost on the boat,
the number one thing I want is for that boat and those guys to keep going.
-That's a hard one. -That's a hard one.
And it just...
We've had such a great record in my whole career
and then boom, boom. Two hits.
[narrator] Less than a year after losing 30-year-old Todd Kochutin,
in the middle of a 300 mile wide Arctic low,
the first storm of the fall season.
Big wave, big wave.
Hey, hey!
[screaming] Get it off!
The Patricia Lee had another brush with mortality.
[bleep]
When 29-year-old Francis Katungin suffered blunt force trauma.
Crushed between the stack and the 1000-pound steel pot.
[in English]
You're going to be good, now.
Wow, man.
Yeah, I almost had a freakin heart attack right there.
Hey! Hey!
Francis jumped in and right then, the wave hits.
He's got nowhere to go, it pins him.
[screams] Get it off!
And if you get injured in the femoral artery area of your leg,
Yeah.
it could be bad news.
Got a wife?
You've got a fiancée.
What's her name?
Autumn?
You guys going to have kids?
We're talking to the Coast Guard,
and they tell me, we're going to see you in the morning.
We'll get you when you're 100 miles out of Dutch Harbor.
And I'm like, all right. So it's about 11:00 at night.
And the Coast Guard called, and they said they'll be here in 45 minutes.
I'm like, uh, what?
And it's crappy.
[narrator] Rather than risk waiting for Francis' condition to deteriorate,
a US Coast Guard rescue team
Oh, there they are. Right there.
pierce the 30-knot winds
as 20-foot seas buck below.
Five POV on board.
You're not used to the Coast Guard telling you that,
I'll tell you that.
So when they tell me they have five, I'm like, what?
He wants me to rescue him.
This is not good.
I don't see how they're going to do this.
It's just not...
Here he is. [bleep] me.
No way.
Dude.
[bleep] No way.
Whoa.
We're having waves come over the deck,
and Francis is underwater.
And he's strapped in, right?
It looked like he was going to hit the wheelhouse
when he was being yarded up.
You always read about those times when they don't clear the windows
or something goes wrong.
And when Francis went up and he went zinging by the wheelhouse windows,
I was just praying
that that wouldn't happen.
Come on, you got this.
You got it.
But when that rescue swimmer went by,
Whoo!
and the ocean was black and there was spray everywhere
and the LED lights make everything bright and the sodium lights
and he saluted the deck,
it blew my mind.
You said it all, right there.
And I will take that with me to my last breath.
Awesome, I mean, the circumstances, right.
Bummer, right? [bleep] deal for everybody.
You know, and people are going,
oh, you know, people get hurt on the Pat Lee.
We have had decades of nothing happening
and then twice, you know.
And then everything calms down and you're sitting in the wheelhouse
and it's dark and you're just sitting there shaking your head,
going, what the hell is going on?
You know, what the hell?
And Francis.
Francis is good. Took him about two months to heal
but he's back on the boat.
He's a great kid.
I've got to tell you, man, you know.
When I saw the way the crew was trying to keep him awake
just by talking about people that were waiting for him at home.
You know, and I could imagine that they probably did the same thing with Todd.
And, uh,
do you think that Todd was in the back of their mind?
He's always not far from our mind.
There's not a day that goes by
that somehow, he doesn't cross my mind.
If you could talk to Todd right now,
what would you say?
I would say, "I miss you, buddy."
I miss him.
I mean, it's that simple.
I miss him. I'd say, "I miss you."
We're doing this, I hope you like what you see from up there.
[narrator] Despite an injury rate of nearly 100%,
Get out of the way!
1 million pounds of newly reopened eastern bairdi crab
has new faces running towards the chaos.
We've got to do something to stop it.
And not all of them plan on playing nice.
Go, go, go. Set the rock, set the rock.
People are hungry.
You know, we've got a couple of bairdi seasons to fish, now.
There's more people wanting to come and chase that crab.
But it's also going to bring a lot of competition.
The fight for that money that's sitting on the bottom.
Well, another one of your pupils
that just happened to graduate to the wheelhouse.
Jack, you want to come on out?
[narrator] Four years ago.
I had a couple of drinks at the [bleep] bar.
We went to the hotel 'cause we were told we were fired.
[narrator] After breaking curfew.
You're the [bleep] worst skipper
I've ever [bleep] seen in my life, Jake.
Thank you, thank you.
[narrator] Saga chief engineer Jack Bunnell was sent packing.
Get him out of here.
Maybe there's another side to the story.
Yeah, I've got the other side of the story.
[narrator] Still seething a year after the incident.
God, I want to [bleep] punch you so [bleep] bad right now.
[narrator] Jack's resentment nearly brought them to blows.
[bleep] down.
Who's [bleep].
You are the worst [bleep] piece [bleep] ever.
[bleep] skipper [bleep] I've ever seen.
Oh, he's not a [bleep].
Oh, man. Look at that [bleep]. Sitting by each other this time, huh?
So Jack, uh, what's the story with you this year? What's your plan?
I'm going to be in the wheelhouse as captain of the Barbara J.
Do you think you're going to have a different style
than other captains that you've been around?
Of course I'm going to have my own style.
What that is, you know, am I going to charge into it and set all my pots
tight strings or am I going to rob crab from you? I don't know.
[laughs]
And it looks like we're going to have a pretty competitive season.
You think you've got what it takes?
I know I've got what it takes.
I'm going to catch all the crab before anyone else can.
Well, sounds to me like you got the right attitude, don't you agree, Jake?
Yeah.
Look, just so everybody understands, like, there's some history here.
So let's just throw the cards on the table and talk about it.
No.
[bleep]
No, that's what I'm trying to not do.
Let me ask him and then we'll just drive it a little.
See where it goes. If it's uncomfortable, then we just stop.
I mean, Jack.
I mean, I was pissed. I wanted to beat him up and do all this stuff.
No. This is a boundary and this is where you stop.
I know this is hard for you because you're reliving the past, you know.
This really [bleep] us up.
It [bleep] him up and it [bleep] me up and you don't give a [bleep].
I'm just letting everybody know in an adult way
that there is a boundary here and you cross it and I fly off the hook.
That's on you.
I just want to hear what happened.
And what you do different now.
Well, you surprised me last time, so no.
That was [bleep] up, what you did to both of us.
Anybody ever come and try to fist fight you in one of these?
I'm not a bottom feeder.
-Okay, well... -[laughs]
I told you there was a boundary.
I know, but...
You don't want to respect my boundary, that's okay.
I am respecting myself.
-You don't want to respect me, that's fine. -I do, but what have you got?
You don't want to respect me, that's fine, I walk.
Come back here!
That's really bad. He's going to [bleep] kill me.
Jake, we were just talking.
[Jake] You know what that's like to have somebody surprise you
that wants to beat your [bleep] ass?
Calm down.
You've never been there for a long [bleep] time down at the bottom. I have.
Calm down.
Just come on back in here. It's going to be fine.
I just want to hear what happened.
And what you do different now. It's simple stuff.
If we cross a line, we'll stop.
It's fine.
I know these are hard for you to do because we're looking at the past.
I get it. Those are some hard moments for you.
But that's history. Let's just talk about it.
I mean, Jack. How would you handle it differently now?
Captain fired me for having some drinks and I was [bleep] pissed.
You see why he did it now.
Yeah, definitely.
-Cause you guys were heated. -I understand why he did it.
But, like, I look up to you. I look up to you.
I mean, I've been watching you guys for years and years, you know, since a little boy.
Then I get on the boat with you, and
that was [bleep] awesome. I love it. I love it so much.
And then I get fired. I'm just like, dude.
It broke my heart a little bit.
Yeah, it's just the hardest situation--
How Jack got his job originally,
was I had a crew member
who came up drunk, was drunk for three days
and I kept trying to sober him up in his room,
then got him a hotel. He died in the hotel room.
We kicked the [bleep] door down,
resuscitated him, brought him to the hospital,
the hospital gave him back to the hotel.
He then got drunk again. I could not get him back home.
And so, yeah. The whole situation is [bleep] traumatizing
and so having to relive this
and relive somebody that I liked having and respected,
but I had to draw a boundary.
It's not easy for me to talk about because I didn't like firing him.
I know firsthand how passionate you are
and with that passion also comes this tension.
You get all bundled up and that's just because you care.
And that's something that, uh, doesn't come every day, you know?
Well, you can obviously see how much emotionally I invested in you at the time
because it's still, it [bleep] hurts.
It hurts that I had to fire you. It [bleep] hurts.
It's a hard one.
I'm not saying you did the wrong thing.
I think you did the right thing.
You know, last time we talked, you know,
I really was sincere when I said, "I hope you become a captain."
I've been fired for drinking, too.
It's why I don't drink.
It didn't help to feel like I failed you
and I lost somebody who looked up to me
just because I was doing my job
to the best of my abilities, the way I was taught.
Yeah, that's how it felt for me, but
I'm a captain now.
And I think you're going to be a [bleep] damn good one.
Yeah, I'm [laughs]. I'm stoked.
What the [bleep] is going on over there, Jake?
[narrator] They say that time heals all wounds.
I'm getting [bleep] mad.
[narrator] That doesn't mean they stay healed.
You like getting played? 'Cause I played you like a fiddle, boy.
What kind of people does crabbing attract?
[laughs] Good question.
-Most are running from the law. -[laughs]
-Bank robbers. -[laughs] Bank robbers.
-Outlaws. -A few screws loose.
Yeah, and what happens when you put those people on a boat.
And shake them up.
Throw the [bleep] hook.
[narrator] When you're staring down an invading fleet,
[in English]
you need to have your troops in line.
And if last year is any indication,
the captains have their work cut out for them.
Whipping their crew into a cohesive unit.
That's no good, man.
Throw it like you [bleep] mean it.
Is that the worst of waking up, John?
And you've got two guys who are trying to kill each other?
[bleep]
[narrator] On the Time Bandit.
It's my spot. When I [bleep] up, when I--
Freddy, you get to throw all the long strings
and I get to throw the short strings.
[narrator] Newcomer Jared Porter insisted it was his turn to throw the hook,
prying it from the hands of Freddy Maugatai.
The only people who kick me out of this spot is the [bleep] captain.
And he ain't here to kick me out.
Do you understand me?
I've been out here 20 [bleep] years.
You're messed up, man. It's [bleep] up.
You know what? It's stressful working together on deck.
Especially if you've never worked together.
I mean, you guys can go brawl afterwards, all right.
You don't have to answer any questions if you don't want to.
-Johnathan. -I'm just letting them know.
-This is the question. -Okay.
So let me just...
Just give me what you felt happened.
I have to earn the respect.
From the boat.
From the captain.
Start from the keel.
Paint the boat.
Get everything done.
Not just walk over there and you think you're going to go straight to the hook.
You know, 20 years of working on crab boats.
I wanted to throw the hook
but the dynamics of the Time Bandit was a little different.
I wanted to get a little bit of rail time
and Freddy thought that, you know, that was Freddy's job
and he was on the rails
and he holds a lot of pride
and I think that pride level is so high with Freddy, you know, that it just, uh--
My grandparents raised me. No running water, no lights, no electricity.
Grow up, like, struggle.
I watched them, like, barely walk up the mountain
to grow something to feed our family.
The only thing my grandparents taught me, just show respect.
I've been fishing for how many ever years, 15 or 20.
I earned that respect from everybody.
I can tell right now, Freddy, you're really struggling with this.
But you've got a guy here that's trying to do his job.
You can't hold it against him.
But respect for him doesn't mean any less respect for you.
And you know what? On the Wizard, you had a senior guy.
Now you are the senior guy.
You are the deck boss.
You need to understand. No lack of respect for you.
But you have to respect everybody else.
I'm going to just cut it off right now. Cut.
We're done. We're done. No, we're done.
Come on, guys. We're done. I'm not done. You're done.
All right, John. I'm sorry.
You're going to bring it back to the... we don't want that coming back.
-Hey, Freddy. -We're done!
He was going back to that place.
He was going back to the place.
Just give me a moment. I'm not trying to stir the pot.
-You brought him back. -I understand that.
He was shaking. He was going to eat their eyes out.
[narrator] Coming up this season.
My brother Andy's back.
I'm glad to be here.
They're treating me fine.
I have suffered nothing.
[narrator] Andy Hillstrand happily rejoins the Time Bandit wheelhouse
of his own free will.
[laughs]
Freddy. Freddy, come here.
You are the bigger man.
I love you.
-I'm sorry to even-- -No! No, you're good.
That's family, that's family.
Roger.
Heart rate. Bring it down, bring it down.
Everything down.
[Freddy] Sorry, sorry.
-Done. -Yeah.
-Trust me. -Don't take him there.
-No. Trust me. Just trust me. -Okay.
Okay.
Come here, guys.
Roger, Jared. Come here, man.
We're on, guys. Come on back in.
I've known Jared since he was in diapers.
I've known Freddy forever. I love these guys dearly.
They're family.
I understand Freddy. He's proud. Don't disrespect the boat.
I understand you, 'cause you've been throwing the hook for years.
I've got one question for you.
Yeah.
How stupid are you?
[laughing]
-To upset this man, over here. -Right?
I think where I probably could have went a little better
was maybe talking to Freddy beforehand about it
instead of kind of surprising him, you know?
I'd really like to apologize.
You know, forgive me, captain. I feel ashamed.
I feel embarrassing. Whatever the word I say, please forgive me.
And I apologize, too.
It escalated, man. You know I love you, man.
I always love you and, you know, I think, uh, even though it was...
-Uh, you know what? You guys are stronger. -Yeah.
-You have respect for each other. -Double roger that.
[in English]
[yelling]
[yelling and laughing]
[yelling]
[laughing]
I love you, man.
[narrator] With the threat of illegal vessels on the horizon,
captains turn to their comrades in arms for support.
Well, you're not going to be alone. You'll have some company.
[bleep] you, Hansen.
[laughs] He says he loves you.
[laughing]
[narrator] But overcoming baser instincts in order to work together,
isn't typically a crabber's forte.
Well, I mean, this year, if the captains can combine forces,
you know, maybe we've got a chance.
Problem is, there's no trust. We have issues.
Last season, we had guys at each other's throats.
Lying, cheating, stealing.
I'm just [bleep] tired of junior.
Threats, fear tactics.
-This is exactly what I'm talking about. -Get off. Get off.
-You're a [bleep] abusive man. -Get the [bleep] off the boat.
Boats bashing each other.
I'll tell you what, Jake. You screw me once, you never work with me again.
Shooting each other's buoys.
Get up, Johnny.
Starting stuff on fire.
-Whoo! -Oh.
[laughing]
Towing each other's gear.
Now it's my playground.
[bleep] [indistinct]
Mean things said.
Hurtful name calling.
Lots of hurtful name-calling.
Don't be a [bleep] baby!
Fat [bleep] cat.
You're like a 5-year-old little [bleep] kid.
We got Sasquatch on the end.
Sasquatch!
"Bull-dungery." [laughs]
Skullduggery?
Yeah, skullduggery, "bull-duggery, bull-dungery."
You know, that's all pretty much the same.
-What's that? -I don't know,
but I know it's gonna be there
-if we all start trying to work together again. -[chuckles]
We both know out at sea, you know, captains can butt heads, right?
[narrator] Last January...
[Sig on radio] My gut says there's crab down here.
But I need some more gear,
and let's face it.
With two boats working together,
we'll bang it out in no time.
[narrator] To catch their combined 50,000 pounds of bairdi crab,
two titans of the Bering Sea, Sig and Keith,
took a shot at joining forces.
[Keith on radio] I don't wanna head over and fish up and down that line there.
[narrator] What they couldn't do was shoot straight.
Can you see me on the AIS?
Now, I'm not seeing you. Do you have your AIS on?
No.
[narrator] Shooting their partnership in the foot.
-Oh! -Oh, no!
[Keith] I hope Sig's on better fishing than this.
[phone dialing]
[automated voice] ...forwarded to an automated voice messaging system.
[cell phone beeps]
[cell phone ringing]
[Keith on phone]
[Sig] I'm just driving right here.
I'm just right up above you.
[Keith] No.
You're not coming clean, dude.
-I don't understand what-- -[Keith on radio]
I don't even want to hear what you're gonna--
No, you're gonna talk in circles.
I have no idea what kind of [bleep] excuse you got.
Enjoy your season. I'm out.
I couldn't even get a frigging word in with that guy!
[Jake] So, what the hell happened?
Uh, exactly what I expected.
Only thing I screwed up was,
I knew he was going to lie,
-and I can tell when he's lying. -I didn't lie!
What are you talking about? I never lied to anybody.
And last year, I thought because we're in such dire straits
that you might actually come clean for once.
I did.
-"Can't see you on the AIS." Oh. -I was being honest.
"Forgot to turn that on."
I didn't forget. I never have that on.
Look, there's an old saying in Norwegian.
[speaking Norwegian]
Which means--
Which means I'm gonna screw my partner
and take care of myself.
No. "From yourself, you see others."
In other words, you're already living in your own head
and you're already thinking, "Oh, he's lying to me."
You've already blown that out of proportion.
You just weren't talking.
It goes both ways.
-That's a two-way street. -"Sorry, talk to you at the beep."
-[Sig] Click. -"Oh, uh, excuse me, but, uh, the voicemail's full."
Who's the one who had a tissy fit and hung up? Me?
No, I hung up because I was done.
I'm done.
I have never been the recipient of anything good from you in a partnership.
[laughs] Oh, my gosh.
"Hi, my name's Keith. Nice to meet you." [mimics stabbing]
No, normally, you set right through my gear
because you know I'm gonna catch more crab than you.
Oh, gee. You wanna go there?
We've always been there.
You are...
...evil.
[laughing] Oh, my God!
You are...
...evil.
[laughing] Oh, my God!
Evil!
As a partner.
Well, if I was really gonna be underhanded,
I'd have you fishing in friggin' Antarctica.
I'm not your little [bleep].
-I'm not your puppet. I'm not any of those things. -[Sig] You know what? You are.
I've known you for decades,
and you've been paranoid then, you're paranoid now.
-And you're waiting for me to retire. -[Keith] [bleep]
[Sig] [bleeping] child!
-[bleep] you. -[bleep] me? [bleep] you!
I didn't know this was gonna start getting personal.
Kid, shut the [bleep] up.
Sig's a snake.
You're a insecure little child,
and I did tell you what I saw...
...for the most part.
-What... -[both laughing]
"For the most, for the most part."
-"For the most part. [bleep]!" -[laughs]
[Jake] Why are we fighting with each other?
We're fighting with an international fleet.
I don't understand what you mean.
This is normal.
You called him a snake!
Of course I did.
That's a compliment.
And it's a real compliment,
because there's very few snakes in Norway, okay?
-[laughs] -[Jake] As long as...
They're rare, but they're very venomous.
-Oh, [bleep]. -[Rip on intercom] What the hell?
Fire, right there.
Kevin, get that out.
What's the saying?
"There's no old, bold mariners,"
-and that's so true. -Right.
But at times,
fate deals you a hand that...
You're not in control all the time.
[Rip on intercom] It smells like smoke.
-[alarm ringing] -Dang it.
Ugh.
[coughing]
I mean, bad things happen to good people,
and fishing is a little bit more magnified.
God, it's over. Cut the line! Cut the line!
[bleep]
[narrator] With $38 million of crab and cod up for grabs,
captains will keep a keen eye out for suspicious activity on the grounds...
-[beeping] -Holy [bleep], dude. We just [bleep] bottomed.
[narrator] ...and the danger right under their nose.
Hey, [bleep].
What the [bleep]? What the [bleep]?
[man on intercom]
[narrator] Last fall, on the Patricia Lee...
[bleep], yes.
[narrator] Captain Rip had an extra set of eyes.
[Sig] We have Todd Stanley,
veteran cameraman,
producer for 19 years.
This guy knows what he's doing.
When you're on a boat, you know,
it doesn't matter what your title is or what your job is.
You know, you're family.
You become one.
-It's a team effort, right? -Absolutely.
[Rip] All hands on deck.
When Francis got hurt,
and he saw that my guys down there
were not getting right with the exact program,
he goes, "Hey, do you want me to go help him out?"
I filmed enough, long enough to realize that, you know,
if this guy was going south quickly
that we better get him serious medical attention right away.
He was a great, great help
and, like, a calming guy for the crew.
[bleep]
-Got it? -Oh, [bleep].
Are we clear?
Hey, I got myself pretty good, Rip.
How bad?
Uh, I could definitely use some stitches.
It's really [bleep] bad.
Cameron cut his thumb pretty good,
and it was a string that we didn't wanna let go,
and I know how to stitch somebody up.
"Okay, I can do it."
But you don't know how to drive the boat.
Is that true? Where's, uh, Jake in here?
-I think I drove your boat quite a few times, didn't I? -[Rip laughs]
[all laughing]
But we're hauling this string, and it's [bleep],
and he goes, "Do you want me to go see if I can fix him up?"
[laughing] I'm like, "Yes!"
-[Cameron] Cut right through the glove. -[Todd] And the line.
[groaning]
[Todd] You look at the guy and you're like,
"Whoa, wow, that guy's kinda scary."
But you quickly learn the guy is just...
-He's got a heart of gold and he means well. -Yep.
[Todd] And he's like, "Yeah, man, I'll take care of you here,"
and he openly admitted he does not like the sight of blood.
He gets all queasy.
[laughs]
I swear, I'm sitting there working on him,
and then he's like, "Get, get the, get the garbage can. I'm gonna throw up."
Whoa.
[vomits]
[Sig] Todd, you've been around a long time.
-Yeah. -[Sig] With that being said, I mean, uh,
you got any war stories?
You got, like, uh,
anything specific in your mind that, you know...
One of the craziest moments probably, uh, going out
was, was, uh, on the Lady Alaska
when we, uh, you know, flooded the fore peak.
And, uh, yeah, and we almost sank.
[Scott] We got [bleep] floating everywhere.
[bleep] I don't know where the water's coming from.
-Whoa, oh, no. -Holy [bleep]!
We gotta figure out where that water's coming from,
or we're gonna roll this [bleep] boat over.
Whoa!
And I got up in the wheelhouse right behind Junior,
and it was an immediate,
"Everybody out of your bunks!"
and a general alarm.
Holy [bleep].
He's like, "I need somebody up there right now to assess the situation."
So I ran up there to assess the situation.
And like, the one guy on the boat who as soon as I came onboard,
he wanted to tell me how great he was
and how he's been doing this for 30 years and, "I know everything,"
and he went on and on for, like, four days about how great he was.
He was the guy that left the hatch open.
-Oh, geez! -The reason we flooded.
That was that guy.
-Yeah. -You know what impressed me right now,
is, like, you're talking like a fisherman.
I was just gonna say the same thing. [laughs]
He's talking like a fisherman.
-I mean, you are a fisherman, right? -[both laughing]
-Well, yeah, I love to sport fish. -I would bet dollars to donuts
that right now, you could throw that camera,
just throw it on the deck
-and then start fishing right now. -[Todd chuckles] Jesus.
We had some crap happen,
-and you were such a great help. -Man...
[Rip] You know, I can't thank you enough,
and I know I have thanked you.
-Yeah, it was great. -But I can't thank you enough...
-Well... -...for when you helped us out,
and, like, it was awesome.
-It was good. -Yeah, dude.
-It was awesome. -Yeah, man.
It's the real deal.
Let it go, man!
[narrator] While captains and camera crews alike face
a surge of low pressure on the grounds,
last season on the Saga,
-a surge of water in the engine room... -[alarm beeping]
...threatened to capsize the vessel.
[Shyanne speaking]
Jake!
The weather was nasty, and a 3-inch pipe busted off.
It was old stripping plumbing.
And I had to get the pipe off,
which was, you know, corroded and bent.
And as I was trying to get it off, you know,
the pipe's twisting.
Argh! Argh!
And that's kind of when I got scared,
'cause the pressure had really started shooting out.
Now the water was up to the deck plate.
[alarm blaring]
It shorted the generator wire.
Didn't know there was a short. It was just taped, you know?
Shorted it, dropped the generator.
[Mason speaking]
[Jake shouting]
[Sig] Now you're in the dark in a flooding boat,
and you got family onboard.
[coughs] That's messed up.
[Sig] Now you're in the dark in a flooding boat,
and you got family onboard.
[coughs] That's messed up.
[Mason speaking]
[Jake shouting]
What scared me most was alls I could ask was, "Is Shyanne okay?
Where's Shyanne? Where's Shyanne? Where's Shyanne?"
Because here's my niece, and my family, we've already had a lot of loss.
It, it, it screwed me up.
Not that I was less worried about everybody else, but I knew...
...everybody else fully accepted the consequences
of coming out on this boat.
And Shyanne being a greenhorn,
you don't really know what you're signing up for
until you've seen it for a while.
[Sig] Shyanne, when this thing happened,
were you nervous?
Do you understand the severity of what's going on?
I mean, I've always seen the bilge at a reasonable level, you know.
It gets kinda high sometimes,
but when you see it filling up with water, like, for real, I mean...
You only fill it up once.
[Sig] Once that gets to where all your power is gone,
there is a point of no return.
That's, that's...
I don't like to talk about it.
-Mmm. -[Sig] But, like, have you visualized it?
[Shyanne] I mean...
Is your boat even running anymore after that?
-[Sig] No, it sits underwater. -Yeah, it's sinking.
-Then what? -And then you're dead.
That's, that's the end of the game.
Death at your doorstep, just waiting to grab you, you know? It's scary.
Yeah.
-It's frightening. -But you can't live there. [laughs]
-No. -Don't live there, though.
I try not to think too much about that. [chuckles]
I know, but I mean, honestly, the more fearful you are, the safer you will be.
-Yeah. That's right. -[Sig] You know?
Jake, you went through an ordeal
where people were in jeopardy.
And now you gotta relay this message to family, right?
How'd that go?
I didn't.
They're already scared of losing me, losing her,
and that's just gonna screw them up even more.
[Sig] Does it make you kinda rethink having blood and family onboard, or...
Like, if something happened, could you live with yourself?
Uh, no, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
It was [sighs] terrifying.
But at the same time,
a part of me, it was nice to know that if something did happen,
I wouldn't, I wouldn't die alone.
Does that make sense?
-Like, there was-- -[Sig] Not at all.
[chuckles nervously]
[all laughing]
"Save some money on the funeral bills.
I figured two-for-one."
[Shyanne laughs] Two-for-one.
Oh, God.
[snickers]
[narrator] To harness fresh blood and catch a million pounds of cod...
[Jake] Bob's on the bow. She's the boat owner.
She's gonna be with us for this fall season.
[narrator] ...Jake staffs his boat a man, or in this case, a woman heavy.
423.
That's the highest pot of the season.
[narrator] 22-year-old Sophia "Bob" Nielsen.
So, uh, you're out of Kodiak, is that it?
-Born and raised. -[Sig] Born and raised?
-Yeah. -[Sig] Awesome.
-So, fishing family. -Mmm-hmm.
How many generations?
My father came to Kodiak and he started fishing
when his stepfather brought him to Alaska.
So, he passed away of a heart attack several years ago,
and right--
Your father passed away?
Yeah, my father passed away from a heart attack
when I was about 13 years old.
So after that, my mom decided,
"I'm gonna hold on to the boats for her,
and she'll decide what she wants to do with them
when she turns 18."
Well, two years later, my mom passed away from cancer.
And it was [bleep].
Oh, excuse me.
It was really hard.
I was just a little [bleep] kid.
My brother was, you know...
He was a young man himself,
and he wasn't ready to be a parent.
So it was really hard, and I was still going to high school,
and I was getting into trouble and I was...
...you know, doing things that I shouldn't have been doing.
But once I turned 18,
I've been super passionate about the boat.
She's, you know, 80 years old,
a whole lot of wood, kind of rotten in some spots.
It's just, I would love to fulfill my father's dream with the Victory.
Well, that's pretty impressive.
Really impressive.
Do you feel like you're obligated through family
that you have to be there?
[Bob] Alls I have to say is that I take so much pride into that boat.
-I take-- -I knew the answer already.
[laughs]
[Sig] I already knew the answer to that.
I take so much pride in that boat and, you know,
everybody in town, when they see me working on the boat,
they're like, "The work that you're doing is incredible,
and it's amazing what you've accomplished
-with the hand that you've been dealt." -Right.
She makes me want to cry.
I don't even...
-This is painful for me, man. -[chuckles softly]
Uh, I'm impressed, truly.
Hopefully, you, uh, get what you need out of this man
and, uh, take that knowledge and move forward.
Yeah, I'm gonna use him for all he's worth.
-[laughing] -That's the attitude.
[narrator] Coming up this season...
...Bob gets more than she bargained for.
-[crashing] -Ooh, [bleep].
[bleep]
Was that a pot?
[deckhand] That was a pot.
That was a pot.
Damn.
[bleep]
We can't have that.
[Bob] I was not even going that fast.
[narrator] As the fleet enters grounds under siege...
Oh, look out, look out!
[narrator] ...captains must contend with an ever-shifting battlefield.
Watch out. Big one, big one, big one, watch out.
[deckhand shouts]
[narrator] The seething sea itself.
Big one coming. Hang on, hang on, hang on!
Hang on to something, guys!
[deckhand exclaiming]
[narrator] Last fall...
[bleep]
Mother Nature launched the broad side...
...right out of the gate.
A 300-mile-wide tempest christened the Arctic Low.
Down! Down!
[Johnathan] Not gonna be an easy year.
The last thing we need is storms like we had last year.
[Keith] It started right out of the gate, in the fall.
How'd you deal with that?
We tried to fish through it, you know.
Ripped my life ring right off the side of the wheelhouse.
[narrator] Chasing the elusive golden king crab in deep canyons...
Whoa!
[narrator] ...Johnathan battled ripping 9-knot currents and 20-foot breakers.
Uh-oh. Watch out, watch out.
Watch out.
Wow, oh, my God.
[deckhand] Whoa, whoa, whoa!
What do you see?
[deckhand] Life ring overboard!
Straight in the stainless steel hooks that hold the life ring,
[mimics wave] right off the boat.
-I've actually never heard of that. -It hit hard.
Did you duck?
[both laughing]
I, uh, I was ducking a lot. I was...
I definitely wasn't sitting there.
Definitely hanging on.
As soon as they start cresting and curling,
and now you've got another 10 feet of whitewater on top of the wave...
-Yeah. -There's nothing you can do.
No, it's just, "Hang on."
-It's coming. -Too late.
[narrator] The Arctic Low opened the floodgates
to a season-long barrage of storms, squalls, and wild weather.
Oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.
It's coming. Go down!
[bleep]
I know you took some beatings, too.
You took some big waves.
Well, not only that,
but we're in the middle of a storm
and I lose steering.
[narrator] Just days after John smacked a wall of water...
[Keith] The current's really pushing me off of this thing hard.
-What the [bleep]? -[beeping]
[narrator] ...Keith learned what happens when you face ceaseless waves...
...and it will not come back.
[narrator] ...while being adrift.
Can you keep your bow into the wind when you don't have a rudder
-and you can't steer? -No.
Wow, that's scary.
Is the boat always going to go into the trough and the ditch,
-the worst way possible? -Yes.
As soon as you lose your steering,
your boat's drifting and you're defenseless.
It's like the equivalent of going down the freeway on cruise control,
and all of the sudden, you lose your steering wheel.
-Or parking sideways on I-5. -[both laughing]
[narrator] On the Bering Sea, best laid plans often go awry.
[Jake] I can see some of the black cod fleet out there with you.
You know what depths they're fishing in?
[Rip on radio] Gotta be at 350 fathoms.
[narrator] Nothing, including partnerships, are left unscathed.
[Jake] I'm a little bit apprehensive at this moment
to set these pots.
[narrator] And during the second fall storm,
Jake dumped his entire 100-pot load
on a hotspot ID'd by veteran Rip Carlton.
[Rip on intercom]
[narrator] But setting close enough to catch
meant close enough to tangle.
[Rip] Jake tangling with me now?
What a [bleep] mess.
[bleep] Damn him.
[Sig] Are you serious right now?
You're corking the man.
-[Jake] Yes. -[Sig] What were you thinking?
That was the last time I talked to him, too.
-No kidding. -[Jake] He wouldn't answer after that.
-Why would I? [chuckles] -[Sig] Why would you?
When I saw your [bleep] on the rail,
I was just like, "[bleep] seriously?
What is he doing?"
[chuckling] I was so pissed.
[Jake] I don't even know what to say,
'cause every time I fish around a single pot,
if I was even close to Rip,
-he goes, "This is my ocean. -[Rip chuckles]
You get your gear and you get out of here."
[all laughing]
You do know there's a pecking order in Dutch Harbor?
-There is a pecking order. -Yeah, I know. That's why I'm telling you, yeah.
-And I thought I was-- -Where are you on that pecking order
compared to him?
Well, I would be down at the bottom.
[Rip laughs]
-You're really making me say that? -[Sig] Yeah, I am.
And it's the reality of the Bering Sea.
I thought when I set,
the pots would land "X" far away.
-I was completely wrong. -But let's face it, I mean,
you know, when you're...
Deep water is a different ballgame, right?
-Completely. -The current can be running one way up here,
another way down there.
-Those strings can drift a half a mile, easily. -[Sig] Half a mile, right?
So a pot gets set, and you think it's going right here,
but it's gonna end up way over here.
And next thing you know, you're tangled up.
So if a guy tells you 300 fathoms,
you know, you don't have to be next to the guy.
You can be downstream or upstream.
It's a learning curve, right?
Yeah, but not with my gear.
-[Sig laughing] -What the hell? I couldn't even believe that.
I'm like, "Really? Is he right here?"
[narrator] Coming up this season...
Right at [bleep] me.
[all exclaiming]
[narrator] ... Harley takes a bath.
I couldn't even believe that.
I'm like, "Really? Is he right here?"
[Sig] You know, I mean, if you were there...
If you were gonna give him an earful, what would you have said?
If Jake would've been there,
everything I would've said would've been bleeped out
for about five minutes.
I was loading up, man.
-I got greedy. -[chuckles]
I would've made him haul the damn thing himself.
-[laughs] -Number one, I would've just said,
-"All right, you know what? -"You get it."
You go fix this mess and see how you like it."
That's what I would've done.
[Jake] All jokes aside, though, like,
you've been one person that has always been in my corner.
-Was in your corner. -[laughs]
-[Sig laughs] That's it. -Not anymore. That's over.
-That ship has sailed. -I mean, if we were anybody,
and there was something said about me or something,
Rip would always back me up.
But seriously,
if I call you with advice,
take Sig's advice.
go a little farther down the edge, right?
Not right where I'm at.
The funny thing is, I probably would have done the same thing.
-[Rip] I know you would! -[Jake laughs]
So you would have done it on purpose.
You would have set it closer.
[all laughing]
I guarantee you.
[narrator] While Jake atones
for his past transgressions with Rip...
How about you? You got a solid crew, right?
Well, no, I've got a good crew.
But you know what?
It's hard to keep good crew.
[narrator] ...this year, on the Wizard...
[Keith] A bunch of guys retired.
[Johnathan] Okay.
[Keith] But they got a new guy, Jacob.
[narrator] ...Keith employs a new crewman
to help seize his share
of the freshly reopened eastern bairdi fishery.
He's got experience, but...
you know, he's untested on the Wizard, we'll see.
Jacob, come on out.
This is Jacob.
-Hey. -He's my new guy.
How you doing, man? Being the new guy?
[Johnathan] So, what is your resume?
Long line for golden king crab.
Lots of Dungeness crab.
Been in the industry for about 11 years now.
-Okay. -And I'm happy to...
find a whole new boat operation
and captain to work for.
He catches them very quickly.
-Yeah, it's true. -Even faster than you.
So I'm really happy.
[Keith sputters and laughs]
-We'll see. -All right.
I like him even more now.
-[laughing] -He hasn't even been on a boat yet,
but he's already saying all the right things.
I don't know if I like this guy or not.
[Keith] Good job, Jacob.
You got a lot of years out here,
what's your plan? What are you looking to do?
Well, I'm really hoping that I could end up being a captain out here.
You think you got what it takes?
I don't have the luxury to fail.
My parents are amazing people, they adopted 12 kids.
Second youngest of 12 adoptive kids.
I'm really excited that I can be someone
that my whole family can look up to.
And all the different people in between.
I need this to happen.
And therefore I will not fail.
He's got good answers, this guy.
[Jacob] I'm gonna make everyone happy,
sing 'em a song, smile, give you a sandwich.
-Let's go. -What kind of singing?
♪ No candy for a villain ♪
♪ No kisses for a thief ♪
♪ No loving for a cheater ♪
♪ That's what the devil told me, yeah ♪
Maybe you could Pied Piper some crab on board.
[all laughing]
Whatever it takes.
[narrator] While this upcoming fall...
How are the hash browns cooking?
Quit worrying about hash browns
and catch some [bleep] crab.
[narrator] ...we'll see what tune Keith is singing
with his new deckhand.
[Keith angrily] Hey, Jacob!
You just cost me a... [bleeping]
How do you know that was me in the--
I know it's you!
I think you got a good kid there, so...
-I think I've got a good one. -You got a good kid.
[narrator] Life as a crabber means facing down
murderous seas and treacherous captains.
Whether it's birds or whales,
you don't know what you're gonna see
on the surface, or even in the air.
[narrator] But sometimes, the real wildcard
is wildlife.
A bit crazy now.
[chortles]
[Keith] You never know what's gonna happen.
Sometimes they have their own agenda.
[Johnathan] Whoa, baby!
[on intercom] Holy schnikes!
[laughs]
Scared the [bleep] out of me, a killer whale right there.
Whoo!
Oh, there it is right there! Holy moly!
Here, big boy!
All of us for days.
-The orca was by himself? -Yeah. Outcast.
[Johnathan] He was begging for bait.
He was, like, right beside the boat, like...
Looking like, "What you got?
Now, I see a fish laying over there."
And then he was slapping his tail,
he was jumping...
like, as high as my wheelhouse,
right out my window.
Scaring the hell out of me.
My hair's standing on my neck.
I'm so happy right now.
[deckhand] He's just hanging out, you know?
He's a great guy.
There it is, look at it come all the way out the water!
[crew whooping]
[laughing excitedly]
Once you think you've seen it all, you haven't.
I think one time you saw a whale puking, right?
Yeah, I saw a whale come up and throw up, dude.
And it threw up, like, a whole pick-up truck.
It was, like, that big.
Five tons of [bleep].
And it stunk so bad.
And then the sea life just went wild,
the fish were everywhere around.
It was... the fight was on.
I remember when I was a kid,
we were fishing in Bristol Bay for salmon.
The river goes dry,
and so we're anchored up.
The boats are laying in the mud.
And right next door there's a guy,
and I heard this... [imitates clanking]
He's got pots and pans, just beating on it.
And I look out...
and there's a bear
on top of the deck,
trying to get into the boat.
And the guy is in this...
I'll never forget,
he had long underwear, red underwear,
-with, you know, the flap on your ass? -Yeah.
And I'll never forget looking at this guy,
and you could see the little buttons on his ass,
and the little flap.
And he's sitting there banging a pot and pan,
trying to get the bear off his boat.
[both laughing]
They're sneaky.
Always expect the unexpected.
What the [bleep]?
[narrator] At the end of a seven-day trip last winter,
an assault from the air...
[bird screams]
[narrator] ...caught the Saga off guard.
Coming in from cod fishing,
and birds just started hitting lights.
And I could just hear it on the overhead, you know?
[smacking feet]
[on intercom] Look.
See that?
Look at that!
-[repeated thuds] -[Sean] Dude!
[Jake] Holy [bleep].
[bleep] nuts.
[birds cawing]
Out of everything I've ever seen on the Bering Sea,
this was definitely the weirdest.
One hit the window, scared the crap out of me.
-[Sig chuckling] -I'm serious!
I was like, "Make it stop!"
And then it just ram-rodded the boat.
It was an attack.
[loud thud]
[bird cawing]
[bleep]
So, I was like, "Make it stop!"
And then it just ram-rodded the boat.
It was an attack.
-[loud thud] - [Sean] Dude!
[Jake] Holy [bleep].
[bleep] nuts.
[birds cawing]
What is this, some kinda omen or something?
[thudding]
They would dive-bomb the boat
like it was a enemy combatant,
I didn't understand.
I spend a lot of my time trying to catch wildlife.
I've never had wildlife
try and catch me.
And that's what was happening,
and it would not stop.
[Sean] I've honestly never seen anything like this before.
-[Jake] In your whole life? -In my whole life.
On boats, on land, nothing.
[screams]
Then the seagulls flew in.
So now you have over 400 birds on the deck.
They might eat the other birds.
I did not know
how carnivorous seagulls are.
Oh, my God!
[bleeping]
[birds cawing]
And so my niece and everybody else had to watch
wildlife do what wildlife does...
This is disgusting.
And very sad.
Oh, God.
Probably one of the worst things I've seen, ever.
[Jake on intercom] I'm so sorry, Shyanne,
that you had to witness this.
It's so sad.
[Jake] My niece will...
never be the same again after that.
You ever watch The Birds, you know, that old movie?
Yes, and it brought me right back
to when I was a child and first saw that movie,
and I was... freaked out.
[narrator] This season, a fourth-generation captain
joins the horror show...
How y'all doing, man?
[Sig] Good.
[narrator] ...and creates a new role
for skipper Sean Dwyer.
[Sig] So, now you guys are gonna partner up,
is that the deal?
-This is it. -Yeah?
This is the new dream team.
[Sig] Now, you got the Aleutian Lady, is that the one?
-Yes, indeed. -Yeah.
Me and my brothers are looking at
picking it up from my old man.
Trying to finally pay him off and start a new legacy for us.
So, how did you guys connect?
What's the story here now?
[Sean] Well, with fuel prices being what they are,
rather than me take the Brenna A out,
I'm gonna partner up with Rick,
bring my quota over with him.
And we're gonna put it all on one boat,
and go out together.
You're cutting down the overhead.
-Yeah. -Cut the overhead.
Combine the money.
[Sig] Uh, how long you been on the boat now?
What's your history?
Well, shoot, I started fishing...
in the Bering Sea, the first time, when I was 15.
Then, in 2012, I actually had to retire
to be a stay-at-home dad.
And after I worked in an office for, like, seven years, right?
I didn't realize how much I actually missed fishing.
I felt like I was a caged animal.
It's in my DNA to fish.
So, here I am now,
trying to start a new chapter.
[narrator] And this one is a page turner.
Hey, the picking boom just broke, Rick!
Oh, [bleep]!
I'm turning into it.
[bleep]
-[bleep] -[man shouting]
[Rick on intercom] Slack, slack, slack, slack!
Wait! What the [bleep]!
-Is that you there? -Whoa!
[narrator] While this year,
illegal fishing rises on the global stage.
[Jake speaking]
[radio crackling]
[man over radio]
In about two miles,
we'll be running across four strings.
Try to look out for buoys.
Or don't.
[narrator] Last year, the fleet glimpsed
early warning signs
on the opilio grounds' northern border.
[Bill speaking]
He's headed right through one string.
So, you should find a little spot and bomb it.
Yeah.
[Sean] Might have to play a little defense.
[narrator] Whether it was domestic vessels
fishing out of bounds...
Man, this is not good. Not good, not good.
Okay, I got some serious problems here.
That is not a crab boat.
[scoffs and sighs]
[bleep]-damnit.
I got a Russian trawler right in the middle of my gear.
[narrator] ...or suspected foreign ships
laying claim to American product.
I've tried to call 'em on the radio,
I've got nothing back.
And he's going right through my gear.
[Johnathan over radio]
I'm on my way.
I just want to scare these guys
-out of the United States. -[Johnathan over radio]
"Operation Anvil Drop."
That's Coyote Road Runner stuff going on.
[both laughing]
Beep, beep. [cackles]
I saw a missile.
-So did you. -[Keith] Yeah.
Last year we saw they were shooting missiles.
[narrator] Last winter...
[equipment beeping]
[beeping continues]
It's been a long time since I've heard Morse Code
on an emergency frequency channel.
Which means there's some serious [bleep] happening
in the world right now.
[narrator] Amidst spiking international tensions...
Oh, [bleep].
[narrator] ...the Wizard and Time Bandit
witness an unidentified self-propelling device
arcing over the Bering Sea.
[deckhand over radio]
What's that?
We're battling everybody right now.
Even international boats.
Crazy stuff.
-And in the air... -Yeah, like, last year.
...missiles going over our head.
Tell me that's an airplane.
There's no way. Look at that.
That's a damn missile.
And it came out of the water,
Russian waters, we're...
100 miles from Russian waters.
[imitates whooshing]
...right into American waters somewhere.
They're shooting missiles at us.
[Johnathan speaking]
[Heather speaking]
That ain't no [bleep] airplane,
that's a missile.
[deckhand shouting]
You can't make that up. It was scary.
Could be the beginning of World War III right there,
One, and then another one, and then...
-If it ain't no airplane... -Yeah.
...or no space shuttle, what was it?
Did anybody ask the government what it was?
Did anybody see it beside you guys?
I checked every website I could check
and, like, you know, Elon Musk
and all the people that own their private rockets
and all that [bleep] and all that,
and I couldn't find nothing.
I'm with him. I've never seen anything like it.
And it was not a plane.
-No. -And it wasn't Superman.
It wasn't... Yeah.
It was creepy.
It's going in the wrong direction for a plane.
You know, planes don't usually go straight up.
Maybe they need to hire me for their intelligence once in a while.
[Johnathan laughing]
[Keith] There's a lot of tension between us
and other countries coming into our waters.
-Yeah. -And they're getting more and more invasive.
Definitely.
They're coming deeper and deeper into our waters.
It's not just the trawlers around the edge anymore.
And it's become a problem.
Well, we have somebody here
that's had a lot of experience with international vessels.
[Bill] Welcome to the Bering Sea,
-Linda Greenlaw. -[Linda] Thank you.
Oh, my God.
[narrator] Already a legend
in the Atlantic Ocean's Grand Banks...
We're gonna get pounded.
[narrator] ...Linda Greenlaw takes advantage
of the newly opened
multi-million dollar eastern bairdi fishery,
bringing quota and 43 years of experience to the fleet.
We've been having all kinds of IUUs, right?
Which is illegal unreported fishing.
Now we're having issues with illegal boats coming into our waters.
[Linda] When you're talking about livelihood,
and someone screwing up your living,
you're trying to support yourself,
your family, you got a crew,
it gets very emotional.
-[Keith] There you go. -[Linda] Yeah.
So, Linda.
Tell us who you are.
[Johnathan] Yeah, let's talk about ya.
I come from a small fishing community
on the coast of Maine.
When I was old enough to learn how to ride a bike,
I learned how to row.
I have fished the North Atlantic Ocean
from Brazil to Labrador.
Back in 1991,
I was in the perfect storm.
What later became the book by Sebastian Junger.
And, uh, then of course the movie after that.
And because of that very generous portrayal,
I started getting a lot of attention.
I have the utmost respect for you being in the big waters,
but the Bering Sea's a little different.
I mean, we might go 600 miles offshore
and then we run into the Russian border.
How long are you normally at sea?
Eight to 12 days.
-In the Bering Sea. -Ah. Pretty short.
[laughs]
How long are your trips?
Typically 28 to 30 days.
[Johnathan] Holy moly.
My longest trip was 28 days.
I thought that was hell.
-My longest one was 45. -That's awesome.
Swordfishing, that's long-lining
sort of mid-water, right?
Absolutely.
So, everybody can mess your gear up.
[Linda] Yeah.
We've got 40 miles of gear out at a time.
You're not gonna see someone
towing through the end of your gear 40 miles away.
And the Canadians patrol their line.
Their Coast Guard,
-they've got a plane in the air all the time... -Oh, wow.
...making sure we don't cross the line.
Do they take your gear too if they...
They confiscate your gear if they...
[Linda] Well...
Ten years ago, made a very legal set,
somehow my gear ended up on the wrong side of the line.
I was arrested, put in jail.
Released, stood trial that winter.
Fined $58,000.
[Johnathan] Whew. That was pretty stiff.
That's terrible.
I'm not allowed in Canada.
I can't go to Canada either,
but at least I didn't have to pay 58 grand.
[Linda] Why can't you go to Canada?
1985.
Um...
Borrowed a truck.
-Oh... -[laughing]
Tell me.
And ended up getting my teeth busted up.
And that was 37 years ago.
Why won't they let you in Canada?
Got in a fight once, in Canada.
-Yeah. -They just told me, I can't come back.
-Okay. -But won't tell me why.
I keep trying to get there,
and they keep saying no.
I think if we try to go to Canada,
you're driving
and the three of us are in the back, okay?
-[all laughing] -In the trunk.
In the trunk!
What kind of a outlaw plan you got going on?
So, I'm here with quota.
And I'm looking for a boat.
I'm happy to say that we worked out a deal.
Linda's gonna come on the Summer Bay.
You know what?
You might actually learn how to fish now, Bill.
Yeah, I know, I could use some help.
[laughs]
[all laughing]
[narrator] While illegal fishing is a growing scourge,
ice and winter weather remain a tireless enemy.
Last opilio season,
the Arctic ice packs spread over 200,000 square miles.
I'm not even close to where I wanna fish.
But this is far as I can take it.
[narrator] Consuming 25 miles of fishing grounds per day,
and threatening to seal off entry to port.
[Jake] Conditions are stupid.
I know last season
I had heavy freezing spray.
Whoo!
This is [bleep] up, dude.
I had big waves with ice floes.
[bleeping]
[equipment beeping]
[men exclaiming]
[Jake] Iced up.
I had to do haul and hide.
[Sig] It was just northeast winds constantly.
It never stopped blowing from that direction.
And that's the worst direction you can have
when it comes to ice.
[Johnathan on intercom] Look at the ice fog.
It's [bleep] cold, dude.
The ice this winter was like it was alive.
It was like a breathing mammal.
It had a mind of its own.
It's... you know what?
To me the ice is like the dragon...
and the dragon was chasing me.
-All winter long, it's like... -Relentless.
We're over 550 miles from Dutch Harbor
in freezing, spraying, 30-foot seas.
Right now, we're pretty much on our own.
Impossible to stay out of it or get away from it.
We went from predator
to prey.
-Yeah, I think so. -[laughing] Yeah.
Skip it, skip it, skip it!
Oh, [bleep].
That was a bad move.
That last winter was rough.
I mean, that ice was relentless.
And your partner's Mandy.
[Sig] Oh, we had some issues for sure.
That was a defining moment for us.
[narrator] After spending the fall
preparing for the arrival of her first child, Sailor...
So... [grunts]
[narrator] ...relief skipper Mandy Hansen
rejoined the Northwestern
just eight week after giving birth.
We're talking about ice.
Ice...
and family don't mix.
Not so much.
[narrator] Steaming up north with the rest of the crew fast asleep.
[Mandy] Every time we hit a wave,
it comes up and over,
and it's just ice in the stack-up right now.
We're getting heavier by the minute at this point.
[narrator] Mandy watched
as the Northwestern built 20,000 pounds of ice
in less than an hour.
You get a lot of ice, you get top-heavy and you flip.
This is what sinks boats.
Maybe it's the older I get, the more afraid I am.
I don't know what it is. But I was really scared.
We had to start so far north.
That's where the crab were.
And you were just literally just jumping into hell.
I mean, that's just how I felt.
But going up, we were icing up, too.
-[Mandy] Mmm-hmm. -That's what scared me the most.
If we take this boat and we just head into the island,
go right into St. Paul,
right now,
I can get you a flight out of there and go home.
No. There's no point doing that.
I'm not getting off.
You got your husband on this boat.
You got a baby at home.
And if something bad should happen,
God forbid, what then?
I was in the same position last year.
It's not that big a difference.
-You must have been terrified. -[Mandy] Yeah.
I just had to think back, you know,
of our own safety,
and my daughter's future, and me,
at least let her have one parent, you know?
If something, God forbid, goes wrong.
I have to think differently now,
now that I have a daughter.
You wanna do what's best for the boat.
And then you catch yourself off guard, like,
no, you need to do what's best for your family.
I know this is probably not
the most opportune time, but...
what is the worst-case scenario?
How many Hansens do you have on board?
[Sig] Well, that's the problem.
I mean, you have, uh, your daughter.
You have your son-in-law.
Got my brother. You know?
And myself.
I mean, I've got generations on board.
And...
I know that even back in the day,
we had my father,
uh, my brothers, we had my uncle on board, fishing.
And the only reason he quit,
he said, "This is not gonna work.
If that boat goes down,
the whole family's wiped out."
So, when was Sailor born?
[laughs]
In October.
[Jake] What's nine months before that?
[all laughing]
It's creeping me out to talk about right now.
But I know. 'Cause Mandy sleeps
under the stairs, under the wheelhouse.
-Uh-huh. -And there was one particular day
nine months earlier,
and I remember we were fishing,
and all of a sudden it's like,
"Wait a minute, where's Clark?"
I'm thinking, "Hmm..."
[laughing]
[Clark] Here you go.
-I'm heading out. -Thank you.
-Okay. Be safe. -All right.
Don't worry about me.
Yeah, I think I know when baby Sailor came into the world.
[laughing] I'm pretty sure.
And yes, it was at sea.
Dude, I was just joking, man.
No, I'm not.
I didn't... You didn't have to divulge all of that.
[all laughing]
What is the worst-case scenario?
How many Hansens do you have on board?
[Sig] If that boat goes down,
the whole family's wiped out.
You know, now when you talk about, you know,
your own kid, it changes everything.
As you get older, there's nothing heroic
about going out there and risking your life.
And when you look at, like,
you know, the Destination, when they went down,
I mean, that was my family.
Why would I do that to her?
Last season, it was really difficult.
But we survived this far.
Oh, we got lucky.
There's a lot of ice forming already here in the harbor.
So we're lucky to get these crab up.
[narrator] After enduring the worst ice in a decade...
[deckhand] Whoo! We're safe.
It's a hell season.
[narrator] ...the fleet offloaded their quotas
before the harbors froze over.
So, we have these illegal,
unreported, unregulated vessels
that are roaming around.
I'm not sure how you combat this.
I mean, we just gotta figure out
some different strategies here.
[narrator] Now with a new foreign threat
to the Alaskan fisheries...
Eyes on the...
whatever you see. Just keep your eyes open.
[narrator] ...captains enlist reinforcements
to stand up to the challenge...
I'm really looking forward to it.
I'm not stronger than anyone, but I know how to work.
[narrator] ...and defend America.
We have to catch all the product we can
before it ends up in the wrong tanks.
[Sig] Look, we don't have a choice right now.
I feel like now, because of
just the way that the world is acting.
So we need to be on-point,
and ready to fight for what's ours.
So this is a challenge that we've never had to face before.
We need more manpower. Or Mandy power.
[chuckles]
So you're taking a calculated risk this season.
Uh, I tried last year, had...
Couldn't chance it. Had to go home.
This year, trying to start fresh.
You know, good weather, hopefully.
We know that the ice isn't there, at least.
[Jake] As a mother, are you gonna be able to focus?
Well, as a dad, are you able to focus?
That's a good question.
You know, you just have to prioritize
and be able to set certain things aside.
And truthfully, my dad needs my help.
You know, the boat's up against a lot this year.
We have to compete. You know, we have to go round the clock.
-We gotta get crab, you know? -Yeah.
You know, quota's tough,
and I got Linda Greenlaw
gonna be in the wheelhouse with me.
It's gonna be interesting.
I mean, she's got good fishing strategies.
Might be educational.
Might be a loss. We're gonna have to wait and see.
Who's gonna get the state room?
Who do you think? I've been doing this for 47 years,
I'm not giving that up on the fact that you've got
-a little boat. -You've gotta put bunk beds in.
-No bunk bed? -Nope, just single bedding it.
I'll let you guys worry about that.
-[Johnathan laughing] I'm tapping out too. -I'm tapping out.
Do you guys know each other very well?
I mean, the same boat, small quarters.
Sean's a really cool dude.
He's a good captain.
I think we'll get along just fine.
There's always holes in every pot
unless it's re-wept. So, I mean...
There is not always holes in every pot.
I'm trying to understand how we can work together.
-Be honest. -This is a [bleep] disaster.
So, what are you gonna do, Colburn?
What are you gonna do this year?
What's your strategy?
I'm just gonna follow you, John.
-[bleep] -[laughs]
Okay. Two blind mice.
So, I got some greenhorns. I got a new kid.
-Now... -Jacob.
You got new blood. You need new blood.
The sooner we start, the sooner we can get done.
What's up, baby?
Already wants to get done.
Haven't even started yet.
[chuckles]
[Keith] I hear you also have some new crew.
[Johnathan] Yeah, her name's Kenzie.
[Keith] What was your first experience
when you landed in Dutch Harbor?
"What the [bleep]?"
[both laugh]
My brother told me it was the city,
so he said, "Hey, come out. Move out here.
There's a club.
-The sports bar." -"Club." [laughs]
[Kenzie] The sports bar is a club, right.
-"There's a club!" -[Kenzie] Right?
I look around and I was like,
"Hey, so where's the club at, guys?" and they're like, "What club?"
-[Keith] "Club." -And I look behind me,
and there's a dance floor in this, like,
-little tiny bar. -Did you bring a dress?
My dress is with my heels, so...
[Keith laughs]
Ask me how many times I wore 'em up here, you know?
Zilch.
Now you're gonna go crab fishing.
That's the most dangerous job on the planet.
What do you feel is gonna be your biggest challenge?
Uh, making sure I'm on my [bleep], you know?
The mentality part of it. Stay strong and stay alert.
[Johnathan] How many push-ups can you do?
-How much? No? -500.
[Keith] Five-hundred. There we go.
[Johnathan] Five-hundred. That's all I need to know.
[laughs]
[Johnathan] The main thing is,
-you don't get seasick, right? -No.
First time, the time I ever took a girl on deck.
And I got Andy Hillstrand coming back.
Andy?
Hillstrand is flying to Dutch
and coming out on the boat.
-Really? -He's been gone a long time.
Huh.
[Johnathan] I got a secret weapon.
I'm back.
[pops tongue] Andy! [laughs]
[chuckling]
I saw a bat signal in the sky.
The sky said, "Come to Johnathan."
[bleep], man, it's good to see you guys. Whoo-hoo!
Foreign vessels in US waters.
They're coming into our country
and taking our crab.
And we have to sit there and watch?
We need to shut that down.
[bleep] damn.
Get 'em back over the line, or worse.
U-S-A!
[both] U-S-A!
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
[narrator] This season on Deadliest Catch...
Rocking out, baby!
[Johnathan] High-five! Whoo-hoo!
It's gonna be good.
Whoo!
[on intercom] Andy Hillstrand is in Dutch Harbor.
He's on my boat right now.
[chuckling]
Holy [bleep]!
It's the Wizard, to the vessel right off my bow.
Identify yourself now.
The [bleep] is this guy thinking?
[deckhand] Somebody's catch turned up here.
We don't tie our knots like that, we never have.
Somebody's pulling our [bleep] pots.
Damn it!
Go back where you came from!
Burn, baby, burn!
[crew cheering]
[Sig on intercom] I got no reverse.
I don't know if that son of a bitch got in there.
Damn, there's a whale! There's a whale!
Oh, come on. Really?
-Watch out. -[bang on window]
The [bleep] thing's smacking the house.
-Whoa! -[bleep]
[crew shouting]
I'm just far away from him in the bait station,
what the [bleep]'s wrong with that?
You know, get the [bleep] out of my...
Get the [bleep] away.
[crew shouting]
Hey, I didn't [bleep] do nothing.
Don't [bleep] take it out on me.
You're not gonna treat me like [bleep].
I got three words for Ben. You are fired.
Grandma is not doing good right now.
They just started morphine today.
When did that happen?
The one thing I...
have not said enough is that I love you.
-Look at 'em, got a rush! -[crew cheering]
Right on. Right on the money.
Yeah! [screaming]
Oh [bleep]!
That's a [bleep] $10,000 [bleep] pot right there!
[shouting] Oh, my God!