[suspenseful music playing]
[jake] crab boats are built to be punished.
[waves crashing]
[jake] three-eighths of an inch steel
between life and death.
Right now, kuskokwim cyclone
is coming up quick.
Wind, 50 miles an hour.
Constant beating of 40-foot waves.
[man] watch out.
[jake] up and down.
Up and down.
[waves crashing]
[man] ooh!
[jake] just one of these waves...
Big one, nick.
[jake] ...Will wipe us right off the map.
[wild bill] watch out, guys watch out.
Game over.
-[waves crashing] -[groans]
[jake] make a mistake...
-[man speaking] -[man] hang on, guys. Hang on.
-[man] watch out! -Boom, done.
[waves crashing]
I don't wanna kill nobody,
but I ain't stopping.
[man] woohoo!
[man] oh, no, no.
[jake] this season,
if I don't catch my king crab,
that won't just devastate me,
that'll devastate the fleet.
[man] I'm gonna have to make a hard decision.
Throw the [bleep] line.
[karl] overhead, nick.
-[man] watch out. -[man] oh, oh, oh.
I'm not letting that happen.
[waves crashing]
[birds squawking]
[mike] 227 miles northeast of dutch harbor.
[upbeat music playing]
[wild bill] holy smokes, you guys.
Look at all the mammals in the water.
[man] woohoo!
[man] it's amazing.
That'd be a couple hundred around here...
At least.
[mike] on the summer bay.
[wild bill] this is pretty bizarre.
We've got dolphin porpoise,
whatever they are.
They're in piles and schools and...
Pretty cool.
[suspenseful music playing]
[wild bill] what a beautiful day,
but we got some weather coming.
So it's gonna be uncomfortable.
[mike] with the 800-mile wide kuskokwim cyclone
bearing down from the northeast,
captain wild bill wichrowski
sets his 118 pots ahead of the approaching storm.
[wild bill] I appreciate you guys hanging in there
during the quarantine.
I know it was hard.
Get them in water. Then will make this go.
[man] yeah. Woo!
-[man] yeah. -[man] I've never seen
this many porpoise follow the boat,
or I kinda think that mahlon has something to do with it.
We spread his ashes before we left town.
We'll call this one the mahlon set.
Yeah.
[wild bill] go ahead, yeah.
[man] yeah. Whoo!
[mike] just seven weeks before the start of the season,
38-year-old deckhand mahlon reyes
passed away.
[wild bill] everybody is really feeling his presence,
and it might be the little bit of positive
these guys need right now, so...
Miss that son of a bitch.
Let's see if I remember how to do this.
All right, you guys, um,
and let her fly.
-[buzzer buzzes] -be careful.
Yeah!
Woo! First pot of the season.
King crab 2020.
[man] grab 'em like this.
-Grab 'em like that. -Okay.
[waves crashing]
[man] come on, it'll do a little better.
[man] yeah.
Oh.
Come on, blake.
Under pressure, under pressure.
[man] that door ain't tied and all.
Come on, kid. Tie the [bleep] pot.
[mike] but as bill's crew lock in to the rhythms
-of the set... -[man] go, go, go, go, go.
[mike] ...New greenhorn blake smithmeyer is offbeat.
[man] pull over.
-Pull yourself. -[man] out of the way.
He's only gonna have to do this
a couple thousand times, yeah?
Mahlon came to me and said, you know, I got this guy
that really wants to try this
but not a good sign.
[bleep]
[splashes]
[nick] blake's like a young child
learning how to walk.
Blake, you gotta hustle, okay?
[man] pull harder, I'd say.
If it was easy,
everybody would do it. [laughs]
-[blake] ow! -[man] holy [bleep]
you all right? [bleep]
get the bait set up, get the bait set up.
Quickly.
[blake speaking]
oh, it hurts.
[blake speaking]
yeah, all righty. [bleep]
-[man speaking] -[man] oh, okay.
[man speaking]
[man] greenhorn down.
Oh, my god, he's going in the house.
[bleep] happened there?
All I saw was, he was all double over and...
[man speaking]
[wild bill] uh, poked himself in the eye with the hook?
[man speaking]
he poked himself in the eye. [bleep]
I had six broken bones in my foot and pushed pots
for six weeks on a boat.
[bleep] happens out here.
[wild bill] I'm hoping blake gets it together, you know.
[mike] 191 miles southwest.
On the northwestern.
[sig] right now, we're done with our offload.
We got what we needed.
The price was tremendous.
The fleet worked together.
Now, all I'm thinking about is bairdi.
[mike] with his king crab quota delivered.
[sig] the good news is bairdis back this year.
So that's been closed for a couple of years.
Bad news, we're still in a fragile state.
It's just like our king season.
[mike] captain sig hansen leads the charge,
eager to prove the health of crab stocks
and avoid the fish and game mandated shut down.
[sig] we got some cod fish for bait that we brought in.
We're gonna ice those down
and we'll be ready to go fish our next season.
Right now, the kuskokwim cyclone
is blowing east 40,
through the bay here.
And hopefully, we can beat it and get ahead of it.
Hey, strap that tote up.
[karl] bring more ice.
Overhead, nick.
-Huh? -[karl] watch out.
-[man] watch out! -[man] oh, oh, oh.
[clattering]
what was that?
[karl] the ice just fell.
[sig] how? What happened?
[karl] well, the straps, side of the blue tote,
they don't line up right, so it loses, uh, balance.
It rolled over.
[karl speaking]
[sig] straps were on wrong or something.
[grunts]
very fortunate.
Can you get the guys ready so we can throw these lines?
Yup. Let's go for bairdi.
[sig] we've got weather coming in.
It's just gonna get worse and worse.
Okay. Let's go.
[mike] 217 miles to the northeast.
The leading edge of the cyclone's fury.
[waves crashing]
[jake] every time a wave hits,
it sounds like thunder when it hits the boat.
[mike] on the saga.
You can see the steel flex.
We're still setting up for a pick.
The pressures I'm under right now,
we're trying to get 300 crabs
because I want my king cove delivery
out of the way.
[mike] with a scheduled offload looming,
captain jake anderson risks
more than just delivering light.
He risks another trip and thousands
in fuel and supplies.
[man] going over!
[waves crashing]
[jake] I don't know if there'll be anything here
when I am setting the people.
I'll cover from 47 fathoms to 41 fathoms.
Just cover ground that hasn't been covered yet.
[mike] without a summer survey to direct him
to the biomass, jake sets 40 pots west to east
and over multiple depths
to ensnare his last 2100 pounds.
[jake] so is this a difficult place to be?
Yeah. But that's just the place I'm in.
[waves crashing]
what else are we gonna do?
We gotta pay the bills and my fishermen.
[waves crashing]
[splashes]
[jake] one more pot.
[splashes]
[man] all right, guys. That was it.
Last pot.
Get the [bleep] off the deck.
Get inside.
Nice job, you guys.
[waves crashing]
[jake] I'll be...
Jogging right in the middle of this.
Right now, I'm just interested
in keeping my guys safe
and try to keep it controlled as much as you can,
but when you're dealing with mother nature,
cyclones, there isn't much control
that you do have.
[man speaking]
[birds squawking]
[thuds]
what the [bleep]
-hear that? -What?
That's a [bleep] bouy's tied down
heard that.
Will you go get mason?
[man] I'll get mason.
[bleep] damn it.
[bleep]
[man speaking]
he wants you to go up there
-and see what it is. -[mason] something...
[mason speaking]
we don't know.
[man speaking]
[waves crashing]
[mason speaking]
[bleep]
-[jake] it's gone? -Gone.
[jake] get all the guys up.
We gotta get it back on board.
We can't leave it out there.
Roger.
[jake] we're not gonna leave a life raft in the water.
In an emergency,
the life raft is your ticket off the board.
It's not gonna be easy to pick this thing up
and it's gonna be highly, highly dangerous.
But I don't have any other choice.
Get those life jackets for everybody,
don't go next to that rail without life jackets.
I can't even keep the steering straight right now.
I see it. There it is.
All right, guys. It's coming up.
[man speaking]
[man] watch out!
Watch out!
-[man speaking] -[man speaking]
[jake] oh, I gotta get the boat on the side of it,
so you drift into it.
You gotta be careful.
[dramatic music playing]
[mason] [bleep] they got him.
[man] hang on, guys.
Nice.
Hang on.
[bleep]
[jake] get the [bleep] or something.
Hey, hey, hey. Mark, get off that raft.
Get off the [bleep] raft, mark.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[mason] you okay?
[mike] on the saga...
[mason] nice.
Hang on.
[jake] [bleep]
get the [bleep] or something.
Hey, hey, hey. Mark, get off that raft.
Get off the [bleep] raft, mark.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[mason] are you okay?
[jake] [bleep] yeah man.
[bleep]
life raft came undone and went in the water,
jake ended up circling around and finding it.
We're trying to pull the cord and...
It's crazy.
Ready?
[jake] it's like trying to pull a truck
sideways in the sand,
I mean, that's how heavy that thing is.
[man speaking]
pull it up.
[man] watch out!
No, watch out.
Maybe cut the raft.
Maybe just start popping it
so you can get it on board.
[man] let's get done already.
Okay. We start pulling in on three.
Wait! [bleep] pull it.
[man] two.
Go
[man] [groans] all your might!
[bleep]
[jake] nice job, joe.
[bleep]
[jake] holy [bleep]
good job, you guys. Good job.
[matt] that's pretty intense.
I mean, like, you can...
You can easily get somebody messed up,
somebody easily could have gone in the water.
[jake] that was not fun.
That was a [bleep] man.
Thank god nobody got hurt.
The storm is only gonna get worse from here,
but we just got to get these 300 crabs.
[dramatic music playing]
[man] let's go, go, go.
[mike] on the lady alaska...
[scott jr.] man, a really long night
with the weather and stuff, I figured, uh...
I figured we'd be done getting the offload done last night,
but it didn't happen.
We're about two or three more brailers
before we finish up.
See where we're at on our numbers
and get a paycheck then go catch my bairdi.
[mike] this king crab season, nearly in the books,
captain scott campbell jr. Sets his sights
on hunting down his 80,000 pound bairdi quota.
[lisa speaking]
[scott] the boss is in the wheelhouse.
Stop.
My wife came up to support me.
She's been doing all the bookwork
on the boat as we're out fishing.
You know, she'd been trying to get bills paid
and get us caught back up.
Definitely happy to be back in the boat.
[scott] it'd be really good if we can get the last
of these bills paid right here.
This is it.
[man] I got it.
[scott] right back where it needs to be.
It's gonna be like a...
You know, a burden lifted off my shoulders.
If we can get this business grown,
-uh, with, uh... -[phone ringing]
stormee is calling.
Hey, storme, what's up?
[stormee] hmm, not all right.
[stormee speaking]
yeah. I do. What's going on?
[stormee speaking]
wow. Okay.
[stormee speaking]
[scott] okay.
[stormee speaking]
um, well,
tell you what, uh...
[dramatic music playing]
-[stormee speaking] -no, don't worry about that.
I love you, honey.
[stormee speaking]
[scott] during the season, we knew
that she had a heart condition.
Uh, you know, we were hoping that it was gonna get better
and that, you know, we could give her some support
after we were done fishing
so that we could keep this boat operating.
You know, I can't afford,
you know, to not sit in this chair
and run this boat,
but, uh, you know, she needs help.
She can't take care of her own daughter.
Tell the crew what's going on and...
So they know what's up.
Hey, guys.
Uh, I need you at the gallery,
don't worry about your rain gear,
come on in. I gotta tell you something here.
That doesn't sound good.
[scott] I don't know what I'm gonna do.
[dramatic music playing]
[mike] on the lady alaska...
[scott] hey, guys, uh, I need you at the gallery,
don't worry about your rain gear,
come on in, I gotta tell you something here.
That doesn't sound good.
[scott] I was supposed to go fishing,
but a bombshell just went off in my world.
[mike] on the verge of his upcoming bairdi season,
junior learns that his 25-year-old daughter
stormee's ongoing heart condition
is getting worse.
[scott] I don't know what I'm gonna do.
All right. So, um...
I got a call and, um,
pretty serious deal.
Um, my daughter's not doing very well,
um, you know, uh, she's got a heart condition
that's kind of took a turn for the worse.
And, uh, it's not good.
She's got a four-year-old daughter,
she's by herself and...
Um, I just got choked up right now, guys, I'm sorry.
Uh...
And, you know...
I'm gonna have to make a hard decision.
That's about it, man.
Sorry, man.
[james] hey.
Love you, brother.
[scott] I know. I love you too, man.
Do what you gotta do, junior.
[scott jr.] right.
Back to work.
I honestly don't know what I'm gonna do.
[mike] 202 miles northwest of dutch harbor...
[sig] I'm just gonna go easy, start our bairdi season,
and get these pots off.
[mike] after a long 20-hour run to the grounds,
captain sig hansen readies to unleash
the first of his bairdi prospect strings.
[sig] so there's a ridge that goes east and west,
-do you see it? -[mandy] yeah.
[sig] I'm at the top of the ridge,
down to the middle of the hole, run up,
maybe somewhere north, or south,
or with it like this.
Yeah. I like that.
[man] here it comes!
[mike] after approving her father's fishing plan...
[sig] I gotta make a phone call, so hop in.
-Just... -[mandy] okay.
...Don't sit inside that line.
[mike] relief skipper mandy now gets the honor
to begin implementing it.
[waves splashing]
oh, god.
[mandy] you guys all right?
-[man] yeah. We're good. -Yeah. We're down.
[mandy] toss 'em.
This is my first time fishing bairdi,
so it's kind of exciting for me to see
how this crab differ from opilio and king crab
as far as being able to find them.
[man] going over.
[man] come on, mates. Let's go. Let's go.
[mandy] bairdi has been closed for a couple of years,
so there should be plenty out here,
but you never know.
[man] yeah, man. Whoo.
[mike] three hundred miles from the eye of the cyclone.
[wild bill] I've been looking at the windy weather
all night long and it's pretty gnarly.
Ride them, cowboy.
When a load comes through,
it's got every directional wind on it.
You know, it's just a big counterclockwise circle.
I'm kinda looking for one of those big ones.
[machine beeps]
that can mess with our day pretty bad.
[mike] already three days behind the fleet.
[wild bill] I'm really hoping we find something
we can dig in, and work on,
and either get our quota or damn close to it.
[mike] captain wild bill can't afford any more...
[bleep]
[mike] ...Mishaps.
[man speaking]
[laughter]
[wild bill] and the weather it's gonna get worse.
I got to keep these guys moving.
I hope blake can handle the pace.
Well, this was that set where we saw in the opens
and hopefully the man is looking down on us
with this one, come on, brother.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[intense music playing]
time to see what the mai mai string has got.
Yeah.
[man] nice shot, bro.
[man] [bleep] nice shot, landon.
-[man] no blanks. -[landon] yeah, baby.
[man] bail it.
[man] we need to see some crab,
any sign of life...
[man] wow.
Do you see a crab in there?
Yeah.
[nick] yeah, dude.
Big bail keep it, baby.
Look at this pile of crabs.
Yeah, baby.
That's what we're looking for.
[wild bill] yeah, there you go.
-Thank you mahlon -whoo.
[wild bill] hopefully, he sticks with us.
[landon] oh, yeah.
[man speaking]
[wild bill] there you go.
I think my idea of this stuff got better as we went here.
Make my day.
[man] oh, yeah, dude.
[wild bill] oh, look at the size of that one.
That looks like a mac daddy.
-Big beautiful crab. -[man] whoo.
[man] forty.
Forty, four, zero.
-[all] yeah. -[landon] yeah.
[wild bill] let's put them down again.
We're just gonna sort of stick and stay if we can.
[bleep] yeah.
[mike] a strong 30 average in his opening set,
bill makes the call to roll back his pots,
and the dial in on the school.
We won't be out of here
another trip and a half through the gear
if we can stay on these numbers.
[landon] we think that our boy is looking down on us,
cause those porpoises that were following the boat
a little sign smiling all upon us.
Giving us those big numbers, baby.
[man speaking]
[man] that door needs to get open.
It's way on the bottom. It's way on the bottom.
Pull.
There you go.
Ah, I'm laughing, but I wanna cry.
[man speaking]
[wild bill] uh, we are on some numbers
and we got to haul them.
[man] hey, don't walk away from the pile.
[wild billy] I need this guy to work a lot faster
than he is right now.
[mike] bill's decision to reload means double duty
for the greenhorn.
It's open the doors and empty the crab...
[man] pull that bag out.
[mike] ...But also bait the pot
and close her back up.
[man] stay up there, bro.
[mike] all in under two minutes.
[blake] exhausting.
It's a lot of work if you're crabbing in the bering sea.
I don't think he's worked hard too many days in his life.
[man] okay, throw it over.
[wild bill] if that [bleep] guy is gonna bail
in the middle of this thing, I'll beat his ass.
Whoa, whoa. [bleep]
it's a big one, nick.
Watch out. Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch out.
[man] watch out.
[waves splashing]
[man] whoa.
[man] are you okay?
[wild bill] you guys all right?
[landon speaking]
[intense music playing]
[mike] on the summer bay...
Whoa, whoa.
It's a big one, nick.
Watch out. Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch out.
[man] watch out.
[waves splashing]
[man] whoa.
[man] are you okay?
[wild bill] you guys all right?
[man speaking]
[indistinct chatter]
[landon] this guy, always sitting down
on the job.
[wild bill] that one wave, it was freaking huge.
At least double the size of what everything else was.
This ain't a game, you know.
It's time to go back to work.
You know, it's gonna be a long one.
[waves splashing]
[nick] it's like a warzone out here.
And when chaos becomes your normal,
you know, be careful, and be aware
of your mental health going downhill.
[mike] 213 miles west on the bairdi grounds.
[johnathan] [radio chatter]
[machine beeps]
is that you, john?
[johnathan] yeah, buddy. Um, you...
You hear about junior?
[johnathan speaking]
[sig] well, that's rough, man.
Especially being up here.
[mike] news of captain scott campbell, jr.'s
family emergency spreads throughout the fleet.
I couldn't imagine.
[johnathan] well, that sucks.
It's the way if your family
is really all like that.
I don't know what he's gonna do,
but I know he's trying to
figure it out right now.
[sig] that's a hard pill to swallow,
because you can make that call and decide to just go.
But we don't have enough boats anyway
to fish the overall quota, so that's an issue.
Yeah, it's gonna be rough.
[johnathan] yeah. Okay. Be careful out there.
Okay. We'll talk soon, okay? Stay in touch.
Get back to business here. I'm out.
I appreciate it.
[machine beeps]
wow.
[waves splashing]
[sig] that's a real tough one to swallow.
You know, let's be honest here.
Potentially, it can affect the industry down the line
if we don't get crab caught.
And so, how do you solve that problem?
You know, you just got to figure that out.
[mike] two hundred thirty-two miles east.
[waves splashing]
[jake] I love fishing in rough weather.
[waves splashing]
[jake] I love getting pounded by waves.
But what I don't want,
I don't like is I don't want anybody to get hurt.
Should I be out here today?
Probably not.
We need 300 crab,
we got to deliver to king cove,
and I don't know I'm gonna make it work.
[mike] twenty-three hours from his schedule of delivery,
captain jake anderson must catch
and offload 2,100 pounds
to meet his obligations to the cannery.
[man] first pot coming up.
[jake] here we go.
Come on. Give me something good.
[suspenseful music playing]
[jake] come on, here it comes.
Oh, my god,
it's a lot of small, a lot of juvenile,
a lot of life, but I don't see a lot of males.
Maybe I just gotta keep going east a little bit.
[man] two is the count.
Zero, two crabs.
That's not good.
Give me something, give me something,
give me something good.
[man speaking]
[jake] there's a lot of crab in there,
but we can't keep any of it.
[matt] the weather came up and the crab count went down.
That's kind of where we're at right now.
[jake] all right. Here we go.
[tense music playing]
[waves splashing]
[man] whoa.
[man] oh, gee. Baby jesus, please let this be crab
in this pot.
Come on, there's gotta be at least one in there.
[man speaking]
[jake] hey, guys, wave coming. Wave coming.
[wave splashing]
[man grunts]
[man] whoa.
[jake] watch it, watch it. Watch it.
[bleep]
is he okay?
[man speaking]
I'm sorry, guys.
It's gonna be like this all day.
It's the only way to do it.
Hoppers are flying,
the bering sea makes you work for everything,
but I'm out of time.
It's the last string I got.
[tense music playing]
I just want this [bleep] damn crab.
[man] come on, man.
We ain't giving up.
[mike] this week on salty takes...
[man] [bleep]
[mike] what do you do on the bering sea
when you got a black eye and no stake?
Well, you got berry, inventive.
Blake, you look like a little alaskan kid,
like me when I was younger.
Hands blue, mouth blue.
-[laughter] -[man speaking]
-[man] yeah. -[man speaking]
[mike] made a meal out of that one, didn't we?
Sig and the northwestern lead the charge
into the illusive bairdi fishery,
while the summer bay trails behind.
On the saga...
[jake] I'm out of time.
Just gotta keep going east.
The last string I got.
[mike] after covering different depths over eight miles
from west to east,
jake is down to his last string.
[man] come on, man.
We ain't giving up.
Let's see what she's got.
Whoa.
Yeah, baby.
It's a good size pot, but let's wait for the count.
[man] twenty-one. Two, one.
[jake] nice.
Twenty-one, it's not eighty, but it's twenty-one.
[man] coming up.
[man] whoo.
Whoo.
[man] oh, my god.
[man speaking]
that's looking pretty [bleep] damn good if you ask me.
[man] big crab, clean crab, keepers.
[man] fifty-two. Five, two.
[jake] this couldn't have came at a better time, dude.
[mike] after enduring intense weather
and scratchy fishing,
the young captain was finally on the crab.
His 2,100 pound target now in sight.
-[man] yeah. -[man] yeah.
[jake] we have a full pot of king crab right there.
Look at that,
can't even dump it out, bro.
Wow.
[man] another crab, boys.
[man] six, seven.
Cha-ching.
[man speaking]
[laughs]
ninety [bleep] two.
[man] pour some [bleep]
-[man] ninety-two. Nine, two. -[man] whoo.
-[man] ninety [bleep] two. -[laughs]
-that's it. -Whoo.
-[jake] we're going in. -[man] hee-haw.
Three hundred crab, done.
[bleep] awesome, bro.
[bleep] whoa.
[man] yes.
Where was that crab last night
[man] [bleep] yeah.
That's why it's called the saga.
[mike] two hundred and fifty-six miles, southwest.
[tense music playing]
[scott jr. Scoffs]
yeah. I mean, I just can't even fathom
that my daughter's going through at her age
and, you know, having a four-year-old daughter,
and she can't even take care of her.
[lisa] our family should be at home,
taking care of her,
helping her out with our granddaughter,
that's...
That's our job, not anybody else's.
I got to get home.
I'm out.
[mike] with his 25-year-old daughter, stormee,
-suffering from a heart ailment... -Bye.
[mike] ...Junior walks away from the fleet
to care for his family.
[man] that is not how you wanna see him go.
[scott jr.] typically, you know, you have a few days
to put the boat away.
You know, you're leaving, so,
you know, you can prepare for it.
But right now, we're just scrambling.
And get on a plane.
You know, family's first.
This is it.
We're gonna get out of here, and go see our daughter,
give her the support she needs.
It'd be a rough flight home, I can tell you that.
I got the last two seats on the plane, I'm leaving.
I've got to put my family before the business.
[tense music playing]
-[man] come on, bairdi. -[waves splashing]
[sig] I feel terrible for junior and his family.
It's a horrible situation.
I don't blame him for going home.
Anybody in the right mind
would have done the same thing,
but that's just one more boat out of the equation.
Oh.
[sig] and, uh, it's a hard one to swallow.
First pot's coming up.
[man] no bairdi.
And that one is bone dry.
[man] bummer.
[man speaking]
[man] in the desert.
[sig] it's not like you just snap a finger
and just put a crew on the boat.
But the more boats,
the more pots, the more crab,
it's just simple math.
[man] oh, no.
[sig] it doesn't look like anything from the second pot either.
[man] not getting better.
Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man.
[tense music playing]
[sig] I'm not sure who's out there.
[tense music playing]
[phone ringing]
-[man] hand me that. -[man] billy.
[phone continues ringing]
yeah, southern wind.
[sig] steve, it's sig. Northwestern, you read?
Steve?
[tense music playing]