Yeah, I'm getting somebody right at six miles.
It's doing about 15 knots heading right towards us.
Rick and I are looking out for each other.
We're keeping an eye on each other's gear.
I'm not letting an illegal fisherman
chase me out of this area.
Can you please respond?
I know he can hear me.
I know he can see me.
I have fought my way to the wheelhouse.
Woo-hoo!
And no one's gonna take it away from me.
Son of a bitch.
This is not a coincidence.
Try to get that one started.
Com Com Juliet three-seven
request to assume our radio guard.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And this is one of 'em.
270 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor...
All right, guys.
On the bow.
Roger.
on the Wizard.
I need a little bit of luck here, okay?
Come on, crabs!
Catch me some crabs.
That's what I said.
Come on, then.
Let's get crabs.
Come on, crabs.
Whoo!
What is our tide doing right now?
That's the big question.
Full moon, when the current gets really strong,
they will literally bury themselves in the mud.
You know, we've still got two and a half, three days
of fishing on the bottom
before it's gonna hit us.
Looking to stay ahead of the strong currents
that accompany a rare lunar eclipse,
Ooh, yeah!
Captain Keith Colburn
approaches the southern edge of a 50-pot string
hunting for 30,000 pounds of bairdi crab
to meet his quota.
All right, we need some bugs here, man.
How many in that one, guys?
It's not enough crab.
We're gonna be out here forever at this rate.
It'll all come around.
I stay positive
because the only alternative is to be negative.
And that doesn't help the crew, or a boat or anything.
Well get it.
Even if it takes us all year.
You know, I'm not seeing much.
But as we're heading up the hill,
it is getting better.
You know, I got a hunch.
The bio mass is further north.
It's hard to find a partner that you can trust.
But we got a lot of ground to cover.
I could use reinforcements.
Finishing the laties on the plotter.
He's the only one within 20 miles.
Stupid, stupid truck.
Stupid, stupid time in town.
I needed to get Noah home
so he could rest his foot and have it heal properly.
Oh, man.
Crew needs a paycheck.
I need a paycheck.
I need to buy this boat.
After losing his trusted deck boss to an injured ankle,
Captain Rick Shelford runs shorthanded
targeting his 55,000 pound eastern bairdi quota.
Every crab a piece of his down payment
on family vessel, the Aleutian Lady.
What was that last count?
That ain't paying the bills.
The Aleutian Lady, Rick here.
Hey, Rick, how's it going?
I've been holding blanks a day and a half now.
Boo, [bleep].
Do you know what? I'm seeing better sign north of us.
We can probably help each other to catch this crab.
Yeah, heck man.
I'm gonna head your way and let's, uh,
tag team, and...
try to target this stuff.
All right, right on, man.
I really appreciate your help.
Shout at you soon. Bye.
I met Rick for the first time when he was about 19.
His dad Rick Shelford Sr.,
I met years before that when I was a greenhorn.
I just think of him as little Rick.
Uh, but, you know...
Now he's just Rick.
I'm not gonna talk bad about Keith.
But...
you know, Keith and my old man fished at the same time.
And they fished a lot.
I'm just...
I'm hesitant
in terms of trusting Keith's numbers.
I don't like being partners with people, but...
I can't afford to have any more blanks.
160 miles South...
aboard the Northwestern.
Luck on your trip.
Good luck on your fall.
It's kind of funny.
We heard that a lot growing up.
We missed our beginning of our bairdi season
because, you know, we went home for my mother's funeral.
And so, it kind of puts us under the gun.
One week after laying his mother to rest
and ending his Golden King Crab season early,
Captain Sig Hansen drops his first 120 pots
of the eastern bairdi fisher.
Ready?
Let her go.
My biggest fear
is that this blood moon that's right on top of us
is gonna, you know, mess me up a little bit.
And it just so happens on a full moon,
that's when you get your strongest tides.
So I wanna set these, uh,
north, east, south, west.
And you want the tunnels to face in there.
The bait,
that smell is gonna go up or down that current.
And so, the closer the crab is to that tunnel,
the easier it is for him to get in.
Crawling against the current.
Worst time to start setting is on a full moon.
'Cause you don't know if crab are actually there
or if they're digging into the mud,
and hunkering down because of the tide.
One over.
All right, this one's for you, Mom.
Get it out.
Yeah, buddy!
Who the [bleep] is that?
American Number One?
Oh, boy.
Going over.
Oh, boy, oh, boy.
That's a big dragger. Big troller.
They're about...
oh, five miles outside the gear.
He's right there.
Gear's right there.
That's not good.
Uh, American One, Northwestern. You read?
Over.
Please respond.
She's not listening.
The boat right there can go through your pots
and just tear your gear to shreds.
American Number One, uh, Northwestern, you see me here?
You know, there was nobody in the area when we started this.
They see us on the AIS.
All you gotta do is bend a little.
Twenty degrees, that's all it takes.
Can you please respond?
The hell!
He's going right down my string.
I'm in plain as day.
It's gonna get tangled in the stores.
And then, they're gonna start cutting 'em.
Twenty pots. Just like that.
That's 20 grand.
Stop, stop, stop right now.
Don't set it.
We got a few left. You wanna dump 'em off?
Just leave it.
It was trollers in the area. Right up above.
It's 120 miles away.
Just get off deck, okay?
Roger.
200 miles east on the Barbara J.
This is a huge opportunity.
I come from a family where I'm the only boy.
Got three sisters, so.
To be a fisherman like my dad, and
further my career and be the captain,
I think that's gonna mean a lot to him, and...
a lot to my whole family.
So I wanna do a good job.
Hey, Jack.
Come on up here.
Today's Friday
and we're delivering Monday in Dutch Harbor, so.
Let me see what we can come up with here.
Gotta get 18,000 crab at least.
With 72 hours to the first delivery of his career,
Captain Jack Bunnell
with veteran Steve "Harley" Davidson,
race to fill their tanks
on the eastern edge of the bairdi crab grounds.
I'm nervous, but I'm very excited.
I'm super excited.
This is gonna be my first offload.
I gotta put up the pounds.
First pot coming up.
All right, let's roll.
There we go. Get some bairdi.
Yeah, boy.
Come on, baby.
Now, what do we got?
Oh, man.
And Elvis has left the building.
Yeah.
That is not looking good.
Coming in light sucked.
I don't wanna come in light at all.
We got something.
There's some crab in there. Whoo!
Three.
Pot's coming up covered in mud.
Beautiful, beautiful bottom for these crab.
That's just showing we got the right kind of ground.
You know, I-- I think we should
follow this little mud streak.
Kind of zig-zag with it.
Instead of just cutting across it, maybe.
You know, they're in the mud. We see that.
Let's follow it.
What happened?
What the [bleep].
280 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor...
This ain't good.
On the Barbara J.
Not at all?
Electrical tape.
That it? - Yeah.
Get this online.
That's the noise we want to hear.
Is it working now?
Everything's working as it should now. Just... There's just a plunger
in there that engages and kills the engine.
Like, when you push the emergency kill switch in
or you idle all the way down and choke the engine off...
push rod goes in and... and kills the engine.
And that was engaged, so as soon as you took that part out...
all is normal.
All that you've done now is disable the emergency shutdown?
I just...
Took that right out of the system.
Let's get on it, man.
You wanna ride that horse, so let's do it.
We'll keep an eye on it through the day, keep everything going.
The mud's right here, right in the middle.
That's where I'm putting 'em.
Do it, boys!
All right, guys, go ahead.
Going over!
We gotta take risks.
I have fought my way to the wheelhouse
and no one's gonna take it away from me.
185 miles northwest,
on the northern edge of the bairdi grounds...
Roger.
We're just about a half mile from you.
If we just set south to north...
I think we're gonna cover a lot of good bottom, good depths.
And that's the way the crab were trending.
...Captain Keith, with newly minted partner Rick by his side,
pushes into higher latitudes...
combing for a clear spot to launch their 250-pot barrage.
Everybody is competing for this bairdi.
We wanna win.
All right.
Whoa, hey, don't set it, don't set it.
Hey, Rick, I'm getting a third boat here.
I got nothing on AIS.
But then I got another boat on the radar.
You got that?
Yeah.
I got him. He's about 6 miles away from us.
Yeah, there's another boat out there.
No good, no bueno.
I guarantee you this guy is watching us.
I don't want this guy setting his gear here.
They got AIS off,
they're either on good fishing or...
they're trying to hide something.
Let's both go straight west.
Go to about 7 knots.
Keep your AIS on
- and throw 'em off the scent. - Roger that.
I'm heading west at 270 degrees.
All right, I am losing him on the radar.
To evade a suspected illegal vessel...
All right, on my mark...
turn your AIS off.
Roger that.
...the skipper has powered down their AIS,
or automatic identification system, vanishing into the sea.
I'm not seeing anything on the radar.
I'm hoping he's out of range.
All right, boys, get ready to drop some pots.
Roger!
Going over!
Roger.
Over.
Apparently there's some, uh, illegal fishing going on.
These are our grounds.
The Wizard runs from nobody.
Going over!
They got the Coast Guard on the way, it sounds like.
Oh, my God.
Hopefully, they can get out there
and provide some aid to them.
Dang.
A crew member got injured.
We're gonna go out there...
...and bring him back to the...
He has a couple broken legs.
And sounds like Coast Guard, they're gonna pick him up.
FPMC 33.
Right.
Flying at 200 miles an hour,
a US Coast Guard Search and Rescue team
races to a 600-foot behemoth for the emergency extraction
of a 44-year-old crewman.
So, what I gather is when he was, like, standing between the pipes
in, like, in a closed area around his legs,
they took a swell, and he fell over and his legs were stuck.
Oh.
Yes. 100 feet.
Watch out! Watch it.
Hovering above the 600-foot transpacific vessel,
FPMC 33...
Easy right.
Holding.
Oh, he's very cold. His feet are very, very cold.
Any blankets was on him? Yeah.
He's definitely got a pretty swollen right leg,
the breaks are on both shins.
And he's also injured in, uh, his hip on both sides.
Roger. We're happy to help you today.
Have a safe rest of your voyage.
One little comforting thought we always have out here
is that, you know, we really aren't alone.
Not only is the Coast Guard protecting our waters...
but they're also keeping us safe.
I'm glad they're on our side.
Buy 'em a beer at the bar, they deserve it.
I feel bad, like, just touching his toes
and he was, like, wincing like crazy.
Hey, don't touch his toes, dude.
I was trying to put a blanket around his feet.
Why are you a... Why are you a toe toucher, man?
That's weird. I didn't anticipate that I was,
but now that it's happened, I might keep doing it. I don't know.
400 miles northeast...
Let's go see if this guy whacked us.
...on the Northwestern.
Are you seeing this?
I can see him on the screen
and he's getting pretty damn close to that string now.
Uh, calling the trawlers two miles away from me.
Northwestern , you read?
If you can hear me, you're 100 yards away from my string.
Would you please alter your course
or answer the radio?
Unreal.
Completing his 105-mile run,
Captain Sig races to haul his northernmost string
before the unresponsive dragger turns his fishing gear
into a 50-pot pile-up.
It's 50 grand worth of pots, if we lost 'em,
that's our season, it's done.
Just seeing the first bag now coming up alongside.
We got one at least.
That's 20 hours, so...
hoping for, like, a crab an hour.
There's life? Yep.
[bleep] yeah!
I know that there's a lot of trawling going on
and I know that they transit this area.
And I know that before a full moon...
you know, you see good fishing.
You can't get a read on your gear
'cause you don't know what's going on.
My gut tells me they just roll over these spots.
Sometimes you just gotta take risk.
And, uh, that's just the way it is. We're not running.
Betting he can beat the blood moon's peak tidal pull...
Set 'em back, all right?
Move on to fish area two.
Let's make it happen. Copy.
...Sig sets back all 60 pots...
Going over.
...into the heart of the trawling grounds.
I know it was my call, I definitely stacked these on,
maybe move 'em to a safer area where there's not trawlers.
But, you know, Sig doesn't run from crap.
Fishing is always a gamble.
Right now, I think this risk is worth it.
140 miles north...
Hey, Rick, how are you doing over there?
...on the northernmost edge of the bairdi grounds.
Yeah, I'm just pulling up on our first pot.
It's right where I left it.
This is the spot, man.
Trust me on this.
This is a huge leap of faith for Rick
to follow me up there.
If you tell a guy you know where the crab are...
you'd better be right.
All right, guys, on the bow.
They've been moving pots around
for about 48 hours, right?
Can't do it here.
Now, we're gonna see if it paid off.
Here we go. Let's rock and roll.
Where are you hiding? Where are you hiding?
Come on, where are you now?
All right, pot's almost up.
- Yeah! - Yeah, baby!
Bang!
Hey, hey, hey!
There we go.
Yes!
Come on, baby. Come to Papa.
Whoo-hoo!
Yeah!
- Whoo! - Whee!
Looking good.
Hell, yeah.
Give me a count as quick as you can, man.
You like that?
Plenty more where that came from, yeah!
How many in that one, guys?
I knew there was crab here.
Yeah, guys, I think we're missing a pot here.
Can I get a couple of eyes up on the bow?
Holy [bleep]! There is a big ball of stuff.
Oh, I think I see the end of it.
We got it.
Son of a bitch!
On the eastern bairdi grounds,
This is not small stuff.
This is stuff that will completely
take this boat out of commission.
Right on.
Whoo!
All right! Now we're fishing!
Hey. - How're you doing over there?
I'm seeing 60-plus a pot.
Well, some dumped it
and it's tangled up in my bait setup.
It's got, like, a tie-up line,
it's got everything under the sun in this thing.
I don't know if I can even haul this next pot.
We've never dealt with illegal fishing boats
this deep into American waters before.
Let's patrol the area,
and keep him out of our gear.
I'm down. I'll keep you posted on what I see.
And good enough.
Unhook it.
Roger.
I'm not gonna run away from crab.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And this is one of 'em.
185 miles southeast...
...on the Barbara J...
Hey, you said it. Why don't you come and hold it, man?
Yeah, hell yeah.
- Let's see what we get here. - Yeah.
Hey, guys, about a mile.
Start picking that string up.
You remember your first delivery?
I don't even remember my last pot, dude.
Oh, I'm sure you want it to be a good one.
No, I do remember.
We were excited as hell.
Got a fish ticket, I still kept it.
It was 49,253 pounds, if I remember right.
I want a memorable first delivery.
And if I come in short,
it won't be that. I'll remember I came in short.
So... this string has got to hit.
First line.
Come on, baby.
Yeah, baby!
Okay, at least there's a little somethin' in this one.
Oh, yeah. Look at that.
Fifty-three. There we go.
That's more like the Jack I know.
That's what we like to see.
Move!
Whoa! It's [bleep] every pot!
bigger and bigger!
All right, it looks pretty darn good.
- All right then. - Yep.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! Hell yeah!
Look at that one.
Holy [bleep]!
The old fourth quarter Hail Mary
might have worked for you, buddy.
Let me see your numbers. Let me see that thing.
Here, check this out.
- Oh, yeah. - Look at this.
Yeah!
Look at that pot. Not at all bad.
- Uh... Yeah. - Huh?
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.
This string's paying up.
[bleep] yeah, it is.
- This is awesome! - Aye.
Way to rally all the way to the end, boy.
You know, I don't know if we can hit the number, Jack,
but you gave it, we gave it a hell of a fight.
We did, right?
190 miles northwest...
...on the eastern bairdi grounds...
Hey, Ricky, can you see anything over there?
I haven't seen nothing.
It's clear.
Yeah, I'm getting somebody right at six miles.
It's headed right towards us.
Yeah, I got him.
Lights out, lights out.
I gotta go downstairs real quick, all right?
Roger.
Must be an old man thing, right?
Doesn't he have Depends on?
That's pretty good. This here, this is,
40 sections, 668 shots.
That doesn't scare this guy away, nothing will.
Oh, hell yeah.
Come on, Keith. Bust a move.
All right, get some.
He's still on the same course, heading our way.
I don't think he sees us.
Yeah, he's almost here.
Roger!
Three.
Two.
One.
Light 'em up!
You know, by not answering me,
all it did was bring me back in time.
You know, I was sweating bullets,
because... been through this scenario before.
Guy didn't answer me, and he was
purposely barreling through my gear.
And, uh, I got... I went nuts.
And I just freakin' hammered it.
Went right for him.
So, I'm comin' at him,
and then he starts going more and more to port,
and I just changed more and more starboard on him.
I am... I wanted to T-bone this guy.
I just came at him,
ten knots,
he started running to the port.
And then I just... right off his stern.
And then he kept going. Never said a word.
Anyway, I don't think he ever did that again.
Road rage, or in this case, maritime mania.
Three.
Two.
One.
On the Wizard...
Light 'em up!
Whoo!
Yeah!
Run now, baby. Whoo!
This guy has done a 180.
He is on his way out.
Yeah!
And stay out [bleep]!
He might go poach some more
crab somewhere else,
but he's not poaching crab here.
135 miles south...
Comin' up here,
we're on the northern end of our strings.
...on the Northwestern...
This is the area where we saw a couple of
those boats go through.
Well, that's the gamble we're taking right now.
Uh, I see the first one,
so she's on track, okay?
Roger.
Keep our fingers crossed.
Right now the currents are running very strong.
Just takes more time for the crab to crawl.
They kinda dig down.
And so... the timing is... not optimal, but, uh...
We wanna see some life in the pots.
Come on.
Yeah, buddy! Whoo!
Ah, there's... some crab in there.
There we go!
This was a big one.
Yeah! - Hmm.
Ah!
That's 17.
- Twenty-nine! - Twenty-nine.
Twenty-nine?
Roger!
Oh, that wasn't bad now, was it?
Yeah!
Now they feel like they're fishing.
Especially with this blood moon.
I was very nervous, but right now, I'm encouraged.
Hell, yeah!
There he is.
He's right over there.
It was an American boat. That's fine.
He's got every right to be here.
I get it, you know, but if he's working,
and he's trawling, then he should at least
respond on the radio,
so that we know what's going on.
Calling trawler, two miles away from me, Northwestern, you read?
Really?
Good, good, good, all right.
So, you did alter?
Thank you. You had me worried, man.
So, everything's good over there?
All right.
Back to radio silence.
In Dutch Harbor...
Hey, sis. How you doin'?
I'm just sitting out the dock,
just about to deliver my first load of crab.
This is crazy.
Thanks sis, I love you.
All right! Let's get it up!
Nice and easy here.
Oh, yeah! Beautiful thing.
Look at that monster. Whoo!
First crab coming off as captain.
Awesome feeling.
I just wanted to get 'em off,
and get back out there.
This is cool.