[doctor speaking]
Some of the potential side effects are nausea, vomiting,
trouble urinating, um, anger.
[nurse] All right, you ready?
[Bill] When you talk to a doctor and you tell them
you wanna go to the Bering Sea
when you start treatment for prostate cancer,
they look at you like you lost your mind.
[nurse] Just put a BAND-AID, just in case,
and then you're good to go.
[Bill] I don't know how I'm gonna feel, but I'm here.
♪ I'm a man
♪ Of constant sorrow ♪
♪ I've seen trouble All my days ♪
[Bill] Red crabs, I wasn't gonna miss it.
King crab is the Kentucky Derby of crab fishing.
There's something about throwing
those big crabs in the tank
that it's just over the top.
[yelling]
Bang!
[laughs]
That's a good pot.
[laughing]
♪ Place where I was born And raised ♪
[Bill] I've been doing this for 40 some years.
Wow.
Every one of these struggles.
-[man 1] Go, go. -[man 2] Look out, look out!
[bleep]
[Bill] Near death experiences.
-[man] Oh [bleep] -Get him out of the water now!
It makes you stronger.
[both] Ah!
-Today I am. -[bleep]
I don't care who you are, the word "cancer"
scares the meanest, the toughest, and the biggest.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned,
but I'm gonna try to endure the pain...
[retching]
...try to defy all odds like we have in the past...
Catchin' kings, baby.
[bleep]
Look out!
[Bill] ...to pull this thing off.
You got this thing ready to go?
[man] Yeah.
[Bill] It potentially could be the last king for me.
[man] Clear!
[Bill] Not going down without another king crab under my belt.
That's the way I wanna do it.
[phone line ringing]
Hey, Sig, you got me?
[Sig] Hey, I got you, John.
How goes the battle?
[man] No good.
Oh, man.
Not going very good over here.
It's definitely dropped off.
Well, that's too bad.
We haven't been through ours yet,
so I'm hoping they're still there.
On our last report, the quota's going quick.
[Johnathan speaking]
[narrator] On the Alaskan crab grounds...
[Sig] Just be careful, John.
Things are getting serious.
[narrator] ...with the Bristol Bay Red King Crab fishery open
for the first time in three years,
captains sprint to deliver the remaining
1,5 million pound, $23 million quota
before their competition.
[Edgar] We have to produce.
I got every intention of catching this crab
quicker than anyone else out here.
We will get more quota.
[narrator] Skippers slow to harvest risk quota owners
transferring the crab to faster-producing vessels.
[Keith] Derby style fishing is virtually no sleep, round the clock
pushing the boat, the crew, and the gear to the limit.
[narrator] While those who clear their own quota
prove they can successfully hunt
more of these red monsters of the deep.
There's a reason why they're called king crabs.
They are the pinnacle of fishing in the Bering Sea.
Right now, every minute counts.
[narrator] 250 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor...
[Jake] All right, guys, two miles.
[narrator] ...on the Northwestern.
[cell phone ringing]
[Jake] You there, Jenna?
You got me?
[Jenna] Yeah, I got you now.
How's it going so far?
It's actually going really good.
Uh, fishing's good.
[Jenna] Have you called about the captain job yet
on the Titan Explorer?
No, honestly, I've been avoiding it.
I've already made promises here.
I just can't bail on Sig.
[narrator] Eight days ago...
[Jake] The door's chained.
[bleep] There's a repossession notice on the boat.
[narrator] ...Captain Jake Anderson lost access to his ship
of nearly a decade, the fishing vessel Saga.
-You own your own quota, yeah? -[Jake] Yeah.
[Sig] You can come here if need be.
There he is!
I wasn't sure if you were gonna make it.
[Jake] Me neither.
[narrator] Leading him to strike a deal with former mentor,
Captain Sig Hansen,
to fish Jake's 10,000 pounds
of red king crab from the Northwestern.
At least, that was the bargain.
[Jake] I've already made promises here.
I don't wanna stir the pot
for something that might not happen.
[Jenna speaking]
The Titan Explorer doesn't have a captain right now.
There's a crew that's waiting to go fishing.
When you come with quota, you're a veteran captain,
and you have a proven track record.
I mean, you're right.
I mean, you know you love hearing me say that,
but you are right.
[Jenna laughs]
I know you love saying it.
All right, I'll find some time.
[Jenna] All right, well, call me later.
-Okay, bye-bye. -Bye.
[Sig] How goes it?
[Jake] Good, we're here.
[Sig] First pot coming up here.
[man] Roger.
This area was real good before,
so I mean, hopefully it'll do the same as it did,
and then we can be out of here before you know it.
[narrator] Reunited on the same Bering Sea vessel
after nine years apart,
co-captains Sig and Jake
approach the head of a 30-pot string,
set on a strong sign of life in northern latitudes.
We need steady, easy fishing for this to work out.
Right now, it's a numbers game.
How we looking?
[Sig moaning sadly]
[man] Not too sexy.
It's not good.
[man] That's not good at all.
Doesn't look like more than what, five or six?
Ah, that's just the first one, man.
We'll see what happens here.
[man] Oh, no!
[Jake] I'd like to just pick them up and move them north.
Well, let's just get through a few more.
You know, we can always make a decision
when we get them up, all right?
[Sig] Is somebody welding something?
What?
Is there somebody...
Oh, there's a fire up there.
-[alarm ringing] -[bleep]
[Jake] Kill the lights. The sodiums!
Kill the sodiums.
Just kill the sodiums.
It's my front lights.
-[Edgar] Snippers? -[Jake speaking]
[Sig] Was it the deck light?
[Sig] It was the sodiums?
All of them?
No, that's it.
All of them.
That whole section of cable was fried.
So we've got no lights.
[narrator] High pressure sodium lights can illuminate
half a mile of the ocean's surface.
Without them, locating buoy bags in the dark
goes from challenging to damn near impossible.
[Edgar speaking]
Those things have been up there since 1977.
You know, what do you expect?
Having Jake back is kinda nice though.
He's really mechanically inclined
and hopefully, uh, we can make this an easy fix.
We need those lights to haul at night.
Plain and simple.
[narrator] Thirty-two miles northeast...
[grunts]
[Bill groans, bleep]
[man] Over!
[narrator] ...on the Summer Bay.
It's [bleep] right now, the tide's running [bleep] hard up against us.
Let off the throttle at all
and the bow swings way around us.
We're gonna be on the far side of the pro hit box.
It's quite a ways away from town,
but the way the surveying looked,
I'm hoping we run into a few crab.
[narrator] Only days after receiving a hormone shot to combat
an aggressive form of prostate cancer...
[man over radio] It's over!
[narrator] ...Captain Wild Bill Wichrowski
plows through his first set in the far north,
fighting through a building sea
and the surge of side effects.
Think about setting any closer to town
just in case anything happens?
You know... I don't know.
I think since I got this shot
all these little feelings and sensations I'm having
a pretty severe shortness of breath.
I don't know how to describe it.
So if I think there's an issue
and I'm in harm's way, I'll let you know.
[man] Oh, no!
But in the meantime, we're gonna go where
I think we can catch it, [bleep] be done with it.
[man] Let's go, let's go!
Over!
I feel we maybe set two, try to roll the cod pod,
see if there's anything in 'em.
I mean, even if we get a cod or a half a cod,
that'll help.
He's a natural.
Landon underestimates himself a lot.
I mean, if things really take a horrible turn
with this therapy, I can't do this
and Landon has to do it.
[Landon] All right, let's get this.
Gnarly.
There are some [bleep] curlers out here.
Like that one right there, it's kinda ugly,
it's gonna be ugly.
[bleep]
[man] Look out!
[narrator] On the Summer Bay...
[bleep]
[man] Look out!
[man shouts]
Oh, they're just...
[man grunts]
We're all good to go.
[man speaking]
Damn! Big swells!
Oh, can we start today over?
[machine beeping]
Hopefully, get what we need and get the hell out of here.
[narrator] 185 miles southwest...
[Bob] One mile, guys.
[Scott] Roger.
Whoo-hoo!
Geez.
[narrator] ...on the bairdi crab grounds.
[Bob] Look at all the waves coming over the bow.
[imitates waves crashing]
Nautical.
[narrator] Aboard the Seabrooke...
It's really cool to have a chance to, you know,
fish with Greg.
Uh, he knew my dad.
I was 13 years old when he passed,
and they grew up in the same fishing era
and participated in a lot of the same fisheries.
Um...
That was the whole reason that he gave me this opportunity.
[Greg] Is everything okay?
I'm still on course, but fighting the weather
is making the boat slow down.
[narrator] Seven days into the fall season,
Skipper in training, Sophia Bob Nielson
and Captain Greg Wallace
race to catch and deliver $300,000 worth of bairdi crab
before their offload in eight days...
[Bob] Getting a real good swell out here now.
[narrator] ...despite building 12-foot seas.
[Greg] Got to get this gear turned.
We missed that offload date,
and I don't even want to think about it.
[crew whooping]
[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa.
You're banging the table. You're banging the table.
Push it back.
[man speaking]
[Greg] I need to be up to full strength out there.
I need Megan.
[Bob] I think it's a good idea to get some rest on it
before she goes out there again.
[Greg scoffs] No.
All she needs to do is heal up.
There's no rest involved.
[narrator] Two days ago...
-[grunts] -[bleep]
...star deckhand and Greg's daughter, Megan Wallace,
dislocated her hip.
"How to put a hip back in its socket."
-[Megan groans] -[bleep]
Keep going, keep going.
[crying]
[narrator] Now, short-handed, their crew's morale
and their chances of delivering on time plummet.
[Bob] Feeling better?
[Bob] Are you going to be able to go out there?
Bobby told me to tell you you have to.
I would say sleep in your bunk,
but I'm not the captain here.
[Megan] Yeah.
[Greg] I'm not going to baby her
because this is the real world.
[Bob grunts] Oh.
I mean, she's a grown woman.
Everything all right?
She's pulling herself off the floor right now.
Okay. Did you tell her it was your idea or my idea?
I said it was your idea.
Why'd you do that to me?
Because I was like, "You should go lay in your bed
and rest up for a little bit.
But your dad said, 'No.'"
[Greg over radio] All right, guys.
Let's get ready to set.
[man] Roger.
[phone ringing]
[Greg] Um, what now?
Oh, it's you.
How are you doing?
Okay, okay, baby.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Relax, relax.
I'll come up and talk to you, okay?
-Sorry. -[Bob] Is that Meg?
[Greg] Yeah, that was Megan.
So I'm going to let you set these crab off.
It's a tight little band in my little honey hole here,
but it'll always produce.
Start at my mark.
Go due north. Stay on that line.
[Bob] I will not let you down.
[Greg] All right, I'm going to go see Megan.
Um, see what's going on.
Send her some love from me.
[Greg] She's crying pretty good.
I thought it would be a good idea to give her
a little bit of a break.
But now she's up in the forepeak
and she's not having a good time.
Finally got popped back in
and just supposed to run back out here.
So it's very painful still, but I'm trying.
[man 1] Let's go!
[man 2] Watch out, watch out.
[Bob] I know it's a completely different fishery,
but based off what I was seeing back in Kodiak,
I'm just going to go a little bit further south
and a little bit further east,
try to shallow up a little bit.
If I'm a little bit off, I don't think
Greg is going to be too bothered.
[crew shout indistinctly]
[man] Whoo-hoo!
All righty, here we go.
First pot going over.
[man] Going over.
Whoo-hoo!
[Greg speaking]
I know, but-- It doesn't work like that.
[giggles]
[Greg speaking]
[man] Going over!
[Greg speaking]
[Bob] I think I'm taking a little bit of a risk here.
You know, Greg might wonder why
I kind of set back over in this area,
but based off the numbers,
I think I'm making the best decision.
The truth will be when Greg comes and takes a look at it.
[man] Going over.
[narrator] 150 miles northeast...
Hey, nothing but an at sea fix!
[narrator] ...on the Northwestern.
I've got no sodiums, so we're trying to figure out a way
to get some extra light forward.
I've got two external small lights
on this side of the house,
and I got an LED on the port side.
[Edgar speaking]
Take it, turn it.
At least it'll get us through the night.
This day hasn't exactly gone the way we were hoping.
[narrator] Hours after losing their sodium lights,
Captain Jake and crew jury-rig less powerful LED beacons
in order to pierce the dark and haul their remaining
38,000 pounds of red king crab before delivery.
[Jake] Getting close, getting close.
You got a battery up here?
-[Edgar] What? -We need one more drilled hole.
-[Edgar] Oh. -We're like right there.
We keep breaking bits.
[Sig speaking]
[Jake] Battery and a drill bit.
I'll go get it.
[Sig over radio] How's it look, Jake? Are we getting close?
Anderson!
Is he even out there?
[Jake] I do have crab that can be harvested over there on the Titan.
[man over phone]
[Jake] I would have to make some calls about transferring it.
[Sig] Where is he?
[bleep] Jake!
[Jake] I do have crab that can be harvested over there on the Titan.
[man over phone]
[narrator] On the Northwestern.
[Jake] I would have to make some calls about transferring it.
[man speaking]
[Sig] We've got light.
For now, it's gonna have to do.
Oh, here he is.
Thanks for joining us.
We got to figure out what we're gonna do with this fishing.
I think we should keep going right where we're at.
Try to muddle through with what light we have.
[Jake] I think it's getting better up to the north.
It's still a risk because, just because the signs are there,
you don't know. You haven't had any test pots that way.
We... we have the delivery day coming up.
We need to fish fast. We need to fish hard.
If we do it right, maybe we get in a day early.
Yeah. And if we miss, it's game over.
Okay. What if the LEDs break?
What if the... something else breaks
and then we have to go in?
I think there's crab here.
We need to get as much out of each pot as we can.
[Sig] If you wanna take the risk, go for it.
By the end of the day, you better have
a bigger average than what you get right here.
[Jake] I... I feel it in my gut.
All right. Make it happen.
You're driving.
Get ready to set.
[man] Roger.
And hopefully we landed on something.
I fully believe in this move, 100%.
[whirring]
I think a season like this, that's a derby...
A move like this has to be done
and honestly, I have three days to get back to the dock
if I want this captain's job.
And I want that captain's job.
I want... I want what I lost.
I don't know how I'm gonna tell Sig.
Especially if it's not even a sure [bleep] thing.
So why [bleep] tell him?
All's I have to do is give Titan Explorer my crab,
and my fate will be sealed.
[narrator] Thirty-six miles northeast...
♪ I'm...♪
...on the Summer Bay.
♪ A man...♪
[Bill] The weather's pretty crappy.
♪ Of constant sorrow♪
[groans]
♪ All of my days♪
[man] Bring it in, bring it in!
[Bill] This is our opening set. Prospect set.
I'm hoping it's gonna give us what we need
to get out of here sooner.
[narrator] Battling 15-foot seas outside...
Been feeling like crap.
...and the side effects of his cancer treatment within,
Captain Wild Bill fights to claim his first taste
of king crab in three years
from prospect pots set 280 miles from town.
[Bill] Spread out pretty good.
Hopefully we find a little area with some life.
[man] Come on, baby. Let's go, let's go!
♪ A man♪
[man 2] I see some crab.
[crew whooping]
[man 2] What the [bleep]!
[man 3] Yeah, baby.
Pretty damn good.
Looks like there's some females in there.
Anyway. Pretty good there.
-Keeper. -Four.
-I think so. -Five.
[narrator] By law, crabbers can only keep
adult male king crab
over six and a half inches.
[man 3] Twenty-seven. Two-seven!
[narrator] But despite a mixed bag,
Bill's first pot still nets in $2,500
of red king gold.
[Bill] These are beautiful crab.
Catching king's, baby.
[Bill] Any kind of life at all is a good sign.
[crew] Yeah! Yeah!
[Bill] That's solid. That's...
absolutely beautiful.
-Yeah! -Yeah!
[crew whooping]
Hell yeah! Look at all the keepers.
Twenty-four! Two-four!
[no audio]
Yee-haw!
[spits and gags]
[coughs]
[man over radio] Twenty-three! Two-three!
[bleep] this.
You know, they say you're gonna have all these...
hot flashes, angry...
nausea.
It ain't good.
[groaning, bleep]
Hey, guys, hold off on that last one.
I'm gonna pull her out of gear here.
[man] Rog.
[groaning]
[man speaking]
-[vomiting] -[toilet flushes]
[narrator] On the Summer Bay...
[man speaking]
-[vomiting] -[toilet flushes]
-[producer speaking] -[Bill groans, bleep]
No, not really.
I'm not really doing all right.
[man speaking]
[Bill] I'm not usually one to complain, but...
I can't believe that they'd expect people to live like this.
I feel like [bleep].
Hey, when we get a chance,
can somebody bring a bucket up to the wheelhouse?
[man] Yeah. Roger.
[Bill hurling]
My God, I keep hurling on hurls.
But I'll get through this.
Just keep throwing that hook.
[man] Rog.
This treatment's gonna be
a rough four to six months.
Yeah, just put it there, Adam.
[Adam] All right, Cap.
-[Bill] Appreciate you, man. -[Adam] You got it.
-Yes! -Whoo!
There's no way I'm not finishing this [bleep].
Head home, let's go.
[crew] Oh! Whoa!
[Bill groaning, bleep]
Hell, yeah!
Whoo!
[groaning]
[all exclaiming]
Yeah, baby!
Give it a little bit of time and see what she brings.
I'm gonna try to defy all odds like we have in the past...
to pull this thing off.
[woman vocalizing]
[narrator] One hundred ninety miles southwest...
[Bob] Push-ups.
[Megan] Oh, my God. It [bleep] hurts.
[Bob] Do you need a hand?
[Megan] Oh, my God...
Oh, [bleep]. It hurts.
[Megan groaning]
...on the western bairdi crab grounds...
All righty.
Rolling up to the first set of buoys.
...aboard the Seabrooke.
[man] Let's go!
[Greg] What are you doing over here?
What do you mean?
You're not on the lines I drew.
You're way over here.
Last year, I was finding a lot of crab
a little bit further south and a little bit further east.
I think it shallows up.
[grunts] Come on.
Just get up, get up, get up.
You better hope there's some crab here.
So, that's all I got to say.
[Bob] We'll see if it hits.
[man 1 over radio] Coming up.
What do we got? What do we got?
[man 2] Is it loaded?
-Oh. -[man 1] Not good.
[man 1 groans]
[Greg] Being captain-in-training, you gotta be able to follow orders.
Next time, if I put a mark, be exact.
[man 1 over radio] All right, go.
Come on, baby. Come to papa.
-Yeah! -Whoo!
[Greg] It's improving.
[Bob] The one that I bet...
is producing crab.
[Greg] Easy. He can fall right off.
[man] Come on, baby!
Let's go! Now we're on the grid.
Nice. 61. Hell, yeah.
Weird how I got yelled at.
-I got scolded. I couldn't-- -Wait a minute. There was no yelling.
[laughing]
It turned out to be very prosperous.
[man speaking]
[narrator] With each pot totaling $1,000,
the crew must now sprint to turn around
a staggering 18 pots an hour
to catch what they need
before their scheduled delivery.
[man] Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
[Greg over radio] What's going on?
We got a bad knot outside the coiler or something?
[man over radio] Yeah.
-[Greg speaking] -[man] Roger.
[grunting]
[Greg over radio] Dude, stop. Stop the block.
Pull that [bleep] in and get it in the coiler. Come on, let's go.
[man 2 speaking]
[grunting]
Got it.
[Greg] I need all hands on deck.
But Megan's recovering.
I don't mind going out on deck as a deckhand.
I am here to be a captain-in-training,
and I'll just take this as part of the training course.
[Greg] And it would really help.
Even if you're just doing one thing a pot.
-It's one less thing. I mean... -Roger that.
Life jacket is mandatory.
Okay, be safe.
[Bob] 'Sup, dude?
[man speaking]
[all cheering]
[Greg over radio]
-[man] Yeah. -Ha, ha!
Yeah, she knows what she's doing.
It's good.
It's good to have her out there.
I know her dad would be proud.
Gary's looking down right now saying, "That's my girl."
I hope it stays that way the whole string.
[narrator] Thirty-four miles southwest...
[Sig over radio] You guys ready?
[narrator] ...on the Northwestern.
This is that northern string we're coming up on.
This is where Jake made his move farther up the hill.
He took a gamble.
I think it's gonna be good.
You know, you gotta look at it like this.
I take risks and you take naps.
[laughing] I don't mind taking a nap
while you're doing the heavy lifting.
[phone ringing]
Go ahead.
No, we've got the numbers straight.
We had them straight before we left town.
We're not moving any quota.
Really?
Mr. Anderson?
Okay. Let me get this straightened out here.
Bye.
Do you know who that was?
-[Jake] Who? -That was our co-op manager.
I mean, are you literally trying
to move your crab off the boat now?
This late in the game?
I was merely asking questions.
Nothing's happened yet, Sig.
I... There's a job offer for the Titan Explorer
to run the boat as a captain.
[Sig] Yeah. You leveraged the quota that you have here...
to get a job there.
Bottom line. That's what you did.
I should be able to ask questions about quota.
It's mine.
Of course it's your money. That's why you're here.
-So we can catch your quota... -[Jake] And they get paid to...
-to manage my money. -...and be done.
[Sig] I hired you here as a favor to you.
-You're treading water. [bleep] -No.
You were sinking at the dock.
[Bob] Does it?
Fake it till you make it.
That's what Greg taught me.
[chuckles]
Now I'm a true Bering Sea captain.
Nothing but coffee and cigarettes for me.
My grandma won't be too happy.
Now he's got cooties.
Meh.
[narrator] It's a nasty habit, Bob.
Your grandma was right.
[narrator] On the Northwestern...
I hired you here as a favor to you.
-You're treading water. [bleep] -No.
You were sinking at the dock.
[Jake] I needed to know if I could move the quota
because there's a captain's job available.
And all you had to do was tell me. I'm right here.
Why would I tell you when we have other things to worry about?
-Because I need to know everything that goes on. -Why do you need to know
-if I am getting a job? -Because that's the way I am.
Do you really [bleep] want me to be here on the port side?
I am merely looking at opportunities
and trying to take care of myself and my family.
I mean, can you really blame me?
Do you think if we get the town,
these guys are gonna give you the spot?
I think yeah.
[Sig] I get it. I understand what you're trying to do,
and I'm behind you, okay?
But the bottom line is, if you've got a job
waiting for you at the dock, then we'd better get to the dock.
Thanks for understanding.
I get it.
All right, buddy. Let's get you to town.
-[beeping] -[radio static]
[over radio] All or nothing.
If it bombs, it's all Jake's fault by the way.
[laughing]
[man] Hey! Ho!
[Jake] [bleep] yeah!
[both laughing]
-That looks good. -[Jake] Look at that.
-There you go. -I told you.
[man] It's better than what we've been seeing.
[Sig] Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
Gut was right on this one, pal.
That one's big. That one is big.
-[Sig] That's beautiful. -That's big.
[man] Oh! What?
That's big. That's [bleep] big!
-[Sig laughing] -Oh, my God!
Look at that [bleep] thing, man!
[Sig] We're gonna get you in, on time.
[Jake] Let's go!
[whooping]
[man 1 speaking]
[man 2] Yeah!
[Greg speaking]
She's hurting. She doesn't feel good.
But after popping her hip out of place, putting it back in,
she's still going out on deck.
I think it's super rad.
[Greg] She's a trooper.
Definitely proud of her.
[man 1] Let's get some, baby!
Keep going. Keep going. You're almost there.
[crew yelling indistinctly]
[Megan whooping]
[Greg] Now we have to get in as fast as possible
before it's too late.
[crew] Yeah!
Yeah, baby!
These pots are in pea patch, baby,
and it is paying off.
In my career, I've...
I've never stopped an operation completely because of illness.
I felt puny off and on.
But you got to keep pushing, you know?
[man speaking]
Whoo!
That's [bleep] awesome.
You just can't slow me down.
Not too big, yeah?
[Sig] It's all good, man.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
We knew this was temporary.
I just can't believe it happened so quick.
So it's all good.
-Don't sweat it. -All right, man.
Okay? Seriously.
[man] They look pretty good down there.
It's like a 6.6 weight average.
That's real good.
The beginning of the season was...
hell to say the least for me,
and I'll still be dealing with the Saga for a long time.
But, you know, the good things are is I got to come back here.
This is the place I cut my teeth.
And, you know, I'm really lucky.
[Sig] At the end of the day, you know,
you gotta grab an opportunity if it shows up like that,
and so I don't blame him a bit.
We'll just see where the next chapter takes me.
It's a new beginning for him, and I think that's great.