Original subtitles

[narrator] January, Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

[Keith] You know, we've got crab to catch this year.

We've got a bunch of bairdi and opilio,

which is the first time in, what?

Three years now it's been closed?

[reporter] It's the news that Bering Sea fishermen

have been waiting for.

The Bering Sea snow crab fishery will reopen this year.

-Got it! -We've got three more to go.

After a multi-year closure...

the Alaska Department of Fish and Game

opens a 4.2 million pound opilio fishery.

Opilio is bread and butter.

This is good news.

We got something to go out and chase.

Adding $21 million to the $50 million winter prize.

But I can tell you, it's a reboot.

We're starting over. Where are they now?

What populations have rebounded?

Those are questions that we can't answer

until we get out there.

But with no data on the movements of opilio crab

in the last 34 months,

captains start their winter season blind.

Bottom one!

A storm's coming.

It's gonna blow like a bastard.

25-to-30-foot seas.

It's gonna be a hell of a ride.

Testing the fleet, a 150-mile-wide storm rolling

off Russia's Kamchatkan Basin

directly onto the Bering Sea fishing grounds.

In the dead of winter, when you've got storm

after storm coming at you. You're breaking ice.

That's when you got to dig deep and see if you have

what it takes to be a true Bering Sea fisherman.

-[Keith] Watch out. -[Mia] Oh!

[Keith] Hang on, hang on, hang on!

-It got you in the mouth? -[Monte] How we doing?

I got no engine. It's gone.

-[bleep] -Look out!

Holy!

[Clark] Sig, Sig.

Hey.

Open your eyes.

Are you with? Hey.

You awake?

Look at me. Hey!

[Sig] We're gonna kick off this winter season 2025.

And I'd love to do opies right out of the gate.

Obviously, it's been closed for a couple of years now,

so it'd be fun to get in there and see what's out there.

Well, Rick on the Aleutian Lady,

you know, he's invited me down to his boat, and, you know,

he's been playing his cards kind of close to his chest.

Working together, it's not my first choice,

but we'll see what he wants here.

Targeting 100,000 pounds of opilio crab,

but with no previous year's fishing information to go on,

Captain Sig Hansen lends an ear

to a competing family operation.

[Sig] Has anybody -- I want to go try in --

in this one, the Zhemchug. -[Rick] The Pinnacle?

[Sig] I want to try there.

-[Rick] Zhem up here. -[Sig] This one.

I don't think anybody's been in there.

[Rick] This is what I'm doing.

-All the way up. -[Sig] [bleep].

[Rick] Spur would be the only spot I'd try down there.

It wouldn't be just me.

We just bought the Bountiful.

That is now part of Shelford Fisheries.

-[Sig] Who's running it? -[Rick] Bobby.

Well, Bobby came with the boat.

They're gonna be doing codfish.

And if they're seeing anything with all of their gear,

that's information.

If we have two boats and have somebody to rely on

in case anything happens.

Yeah -- I mean, you definitely gave me something

to think about, that's for sure.

-[Rick] All right, Sig. -[Sig] OK, pal.

[Rick] Take care, man.

I'm kind of hoping he'll bite.

I mean, either I get some good intel

on the Bountiful's cod pots,

or I get Sig's info.

It'll be a win-win no matter what.

Yeah, this last fall, we partnered up,

and that was fine. It was productive.

We got things done.

So they're gonna be a little harder to find, I suspect.

Who knows?

You know, there might be some opportunity there.

Keep your options open, you know?

[deckhand] Yeah! Wire up!

Go up on the rope. A little more.

[Keith] We have to be super efficient, catch our bairdi,

catch our opies, and get this boat home.

But I've got some good news, though.

I have a couple crewmen back on my boat that I desperately need

for the winter fishery.

Zigging while the 46-boat fleet zags,

Captain Keith Colburn turns his sights

on the elusive western bairdi fishery,

betting he can tank his 175,000 pounds of quota

before switching to opilio.

[Keith] Well, Monte came here in advance of me a couple days

with the crew.

I haven't heard a lot from him ever since.

[deckhand] Hey! I'll be coming down in just a sec.

That means Monte's got everything dialed in,

it's right, it's tight, and ready to go.

Or... [scoffs] Who knows?

[OJ] All right!

[Keith] Get some hand signals up there!

[Freddy] Hey! Welcome aboard, boss!

Ho! What are you doing?

-[laughing] Right on. -Booyah!

-Love you, man. -Right on, love you, boss.

Man, it's good to see your face.

Welcome back. Thank you.

Oh.

You in here, mouse?

[bleep] How are things going?

Let's see. Oh, here.

I'll turn this on for a second.

What's up?

How is that? How are we doing up in the bow?

OK, I'll be in the wheelhouse, OK?

Right on.

OJ, I need to see you up here right now.

Hi Cap, coming.

[Keith] Hey, so, uh, what do we got?

[OJ speaking]

[Keith] OK, um...

Big question.

Be completely honest. How's my brother doing?

OK.

OK.

I appreciate you being honest.

-OK, I'll be right here. -OK.

My brother's been on a two-day bender here in [bleep]

in Dutch Harbor, and [bleep] not getting done.

We're gonna have 170,000 pounds of bairdi to catch.

So we've got a lot of work to do in a short period of time.

And we're behind schedule.

[sighs]

Across the docks....

[Jake] You talk to him?

[Jenna speaking over phone]

All right, nice work.

400,000 pounds of bairdi.

...on the Titan Explorer.

[Jake] Yeah, bye.

Jenna, my guardian angel, just traded my opies

for more bairdi quota.

It's more money, so I'm doing it.

I'm trying to buy the Titan, so I need every nickel,

dime, and penny I can get.

Joining the Wizard on the bairdi grounds,

Captain Jake Anderson

bets a higher price per pound gets him the $1.5 million

he needs to go from captain to owner-operator.

All right, guys.

We're about to fish a massive amount of bairdi.

-Yeah! -Whoo!

[Jake] Just get those pots and we'll go.

All right.

This might be...

move of a hero...

or it could be a move of a real big loser.

[Rick] All right, let's go.

Yeah, Roger.

We got 220,000 pounds of opies to catch right now.

More than almost every boat I know.

But Sig...

will I share everything?

We'll have to see. It'll be one step at a time.

[deckhand] Go on! Throw the line!

[deckhand #2] Roger!

[Sig] OK.

Let's get out there and start fishing opilio.

[Clark] Go!

And we're off.

[Clark] OK, let's roll!

[Sig] We are going into the unexpected.

[deckhand] We're out of here! Yeah!

I'm excited, you know?

I think with Rick on the Aleutian Lady,

he did offer to work and search together.

Now, if I do this, you know, Rick better play it straight.

But I think the best we can do is just go attack.

[Keith] Right now, I'll just be happy to get this boat out of town.

All right, guys, we can go ahead and throw lines here.

-[deckhand] Roger captain. -[OJ] 2025, baby!

Give us some luck!

My brother [bleep] imploded on me in town,

didn't get [bleep] done.

-[OJ] Go get some money! -Oh!

[Keith] We got [bleep] weather coming.

It's the middle of winter.

Do it [indistinct]!

[Keith] I need to get the hell out of here, man.

[Freddy] Let's go! Whoo!

Big money, baby! Big money!

Big money! Yeah!

Whoo!

On the western bairdi crab grounds...

[Keith] It's about ready to set.

...aboard the Wizard. -[OJ] Let's go, go, go!

We're about five miles off this boundary,

you know, the 166 line is

the boundary between eastern tanners, western tanners.

Got it!

We've got quite a bit of western tanners to catch.

We've got, like, about 175,000 pounds, I think.

And this is the calm before the storm.

There's some major, major weather

coming our way right now.

With a now 230-mile-wide low-pressure system barreling

towards the Bering Sea, Captain Keith races to set

220 pots on the border of the western bairdi grounds

before wind and Bering Sea currents converge,

creating powerful 30-foot breakers.

[Keith and Monte speaking]

Um...

[Keith] We had some issues with my brother.

You know, it is, uh...

it's the curse of the Colburns.

We're alcoholics.

Hopefully Monte will get it together,

be ready to go to work.

[OJ speaking]

As soon as you're ready, let her go, man.

Let her go.

[Freddy] Here it goes! First pot going in!

Just 20 miles to the northwest...

[Jake] All right guys, get ready to set.

[deckhand] Roger!

...on the Titan Explorer.

It's harder to find bairdi than it is to find your keys

that you lost last week for your car.

It's the worst.

But they're worth at least $2 more a pound than opies.

So I've traded my opies for bairdi.

Here we go.

[Mac] Going over!

Whoo!

So bairdi typically will eat anything

they get their hands on,

but what they're after is worms and clams.

Where do worms and clams hang out?

In the mud.

It's just a tight little area right here.

I'm hoping that the fishing goes quick, but we'll see.

-[Mac] Get some crab! -[Felipe] Whoo-hoo!

370 miles northwest on the opilio grounds...

aboard the Aleutian Lady.

[Rick] Oh, really?

North of the ridge. Let me zoom in there.

[Bobby speaking over phone]

I'll start over there and find out what I can see.

Everybody's already doing cod. It's been a couple weeks.

So having the Bountiful out on the grounds fishing codfish,

seeing opies in their pots, is real information.

I don't feel bad splitting it east-west with Sig.

We got to see how big this biomass is,

so I'm giving myself a little bit of an edge.

Who wouldn't?

Over!

[Rick speaking over radio]

Yeah, you got me. Pick me up!

[Rick over radio] Hey, I just go news from Bobby.

He was saying just north of the ridge

it was some pretty dang good counts.

I mean if I take the west side of it,

you take the east side of it.

Cover as much bottom as we possibly can.

OK, perfect. All right, I'm in.

That's a good plan.

We'll just check in a bit here.

[Rick over radio] Sounds good.

We're going off of intel from the Bountiful,

I know Captain there, Bobby, real well.

Certainly not gonna...

run away from his information.

We just want to get this opilio caught quickly.

Now we just got to find him.

[deckhand] Going over!

We have to find the edge on the east.

Sig's still gonna find crab.

I just might find a little more.

I mean, I'm just omitting part of the facts.

390 miles southeast,

on the leading edge of the storm...

Whoo-hoo!

[Keith] The weather's definitely kicked up another notch

in the last couple hours.

We've got about nine more pots.

...aboard the Wizard.

[Mia speaking]

-[Freddy] Look out! -[OJ] Whoo!

[Mia] It's getting a lot worse.

[Keith speaking]

...coming through here.

[OJ] Watch out, bro!

OK, now I'm getting a little leery, a little nervous here.

[unintelligible]

[Keith speaking]

I just want to get stuff in the water right now, man.

[bleep]!

That is just a [bleep] mountain there.

Get against the rail!

[Mia groaning]

[Mia groaning]

Aboard the Wizard...

[Keith] Hang on, hang on, hang on!

[Mia groaning]

[Keith and crew speaking]

[indistinct yelling]

Oh!

All right, OK, that's the last one, guys.

You know, we're battling this weather big time right now.

When the weather goes to hell like this,

it becomes twice as hard to do your job.

We just have to hope that we can clean up

our bairdi fast,

because it's only gonna get worse and worse and worse.

Six miles north...

Watch your rail! Watch your rail!

...aboard the Titan Explorer.

Whoo! Whoo-hoo!

[Jake] The first winter storm is here.

50 to 55 knot-winds.

This is where we are.

I set over here on the banks in the shallows,

40 fathoms going west, farther west.

The mud sets.

I gotta use my steering back and forth, so I gotta square up

into the waves and make the ride as smooth as I can.

-OK, here we go. -Roger.

Warring through the same low pressure system as Keith,

Captain Jake Anderson approaches his first string

of the season.

OK, here we go.

In need of a 50 crab-per-pot average to get on course

for his purchase of the Titan Explorer.

Ah -- hoo-hoo.

[Jake] Time is running out

because other boats are moving in,

but if I can get this and I can get it quick,

I'll have almost enough money to buy this boat.

All right, here it comes. Come on!

[deckhand] Pot coming up!

[Jake] Oh, come on, come on!

[Felipe over radio] Come on crabs, come on crab.

Oh, yeah.

There's crab in it, but it doesn't look like much.

[deckhand] Look at that.

[Mac speaking]

[bleep] Twelve.

[groaning]

The string is as bad as the [bleep]damn weather.

[deckhand] Careful!

Wah-wah-wah!

All right, stack this. We're moving it.

[deckhand] Roger!

I got to find a place to move these in the middle of a storm.

[deckhand] Look out!

Oh, man.

-[clicking] -[propeller whirring]

[groaning]

Whoo-hoo!

-[clicking] -[propeller whirring]

[Jake] What the [bleep].

Oh [bleep].

I can't [bleep] turn it on.

[bleep]damn it, hang on.

-[clicking] -[bleep].

-[indistinct] -Whoo-hoo!

[deckhand] Watch out! Watch out!

Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!

[bleep]!

[shrill bell ringing]

[Jake] I got starboard, but I got no port.

You can only turn right.

[deckhand] Watch out, watch out, watch out!

[Jake over radio] Hey, Felipe, get down to the engine room now!

I can only steer to the starboard.

Shut the [bleep] up!

On the Titan Explorer...

Oh, my god. I can't turn at all to the port.

[Felipe speaking]

Holy sh -- wow!

Hey, what's going on?

[bleep] damn!

Dude, we have to --

We can't stop.

Um...

I'm going to actually try to just turn to the starboard

and do circles, if we can haul gear with half our steering.

[bleep] it.

Just tell everybody to get ready.

Felipe thinks he can solve this steering issue

in a couple hours. I don't have a couple hours.

Unable to send a signal to the hydraulic pumps

that turn the boat left, Jake must make a series

of 360 degree loops to the right

in order to haul each pot.

But with swells coming from the south,

half of every turn exposes Jake's starboard rail

and his crew to 20-foot waves.

OK. Here we go!

[deckhand] Let's go, baby. Let's go catch some crab.

[tense music playing]

-[Mac] Do it boys! -[deckhand] Come on!

Whoo!

Oh boy!

[Mac] Let's get some berries!

[Jake] I see it.

[Chino] Here it comes!

Almost ready, man. Almost ready.

[bleep], I'm way too far from the buoy.

[muffled buzzing]

-I shouldn't do this. -[deckhand] Throw!

Go get it!

-[Chino] I got this!

[Felipe Yeah, come on, come on, come on!

Oh [bleep]. He [bleep] got it.

[deckhand] All right.

Now, push!

I'm at the mercy of the sea right now.

Hopefully, Felipe can solve this steering issue.

I got to get this stack on and moved.

[deckhand] Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it.

Whoo-hoo!

[Jake] We still got to keep going.

Just work through it, no matter what.

[deckhand] Whoo!

390 miles northwest...

on the opilio grounds.

All right, guys, let's get ready to rock and roll.

[Sig] OK, we're on the first pot here.

Now, I'm hoping that Rick will be honest.

I hope that he's forthright.

But it's hard to say you can trust anybody.

[laughing]

[deckhand] Get some berries!

[Rick] Just me and Sig.

I'm hammering the west. He's over on the east.

[Clark] Let's go!

All right, let's see here. Come on, now.

[deckhand] Come on, baby.

Come on crab, come on crab.

Pot's on the block. Coming up, coming up.

[deckhand] What do we got?

[Sig] All right, first one's up.

Is there life?

[deckhand] Boo.

Come on!

A few smalls?

We were expecting more.

Come on, baby.

All right.

[deckhand] Whoa!

-Whoo! -Holy [bleep].

No way!

[deckhand] Whoo! Big ole pot, baby!

[Rick] You got -- what the hell?

Whoo-hoo!

I mean, that is a [bleep] ton of opies.

The frickin' table is overflowing.

Look at that, baby! Whoo!

Oh!

-Woo hoo hoo, baby! -Money in the bank.

-Crab count 3-7-2. -He-he-hey! Whoo!

Nothing!

[groaning]

Oh, my god, [bleep] horrible.

-[Noah] Winner! -[deckhand] [bleep].

I mean, this is insane.

Yeah, baby. Let's go.

That is frickin' awesome.

Damn it!

[deckhand] Oh [bleep].

I mean, there was supposed to be life.

[deckhand] Ugh!

It just makes me wonder.

370 miles southeast,

on the windswept bairdi grounds...

[deckhand] Whoa!

[groaning]

-[loud thud] -[bleep]!

You rotten bastard!

-[bleep] damn it. -There's a hell of a roll.

...aboard the Wizard,

Now we gotta [bleep] hang on.

[deckhand] Ahh-ha-ha!

Oh!

This weather's not conducive to hauling, but we've already

got one person that's [bleep] on the bench.

Throw me down!

We rolled, or like a wave hit us.

I don't even know. And I just flew into the wall.

And it just sent like a shock of pain down my arm.

[bleep] pot, it's totally got to [bleep] jacked up.

[deckhand] Watch out!

-[OJ] All right, here we go. -Come on, baby.

[OJ] Coming up!

[Freddy] Whoa!

[OJ] Yeah, dude, what the [bleep]!

-What -- no! -Oh my --

[Monte] Absolutely [bleep] nothing.

It's not what I was hoping to see in that end pot.

I'll tell you that right now.

-Come on baby! -Garbage.

Crab. Crab.

Get us some crab!

What is going on?

I wonder if we should consider heading north

with some of this gear.

We got enough bullets on here to cover some ground.

It's probably a good move.

-[OJ] Watch out! -[deckhand] Ah!

Ah!

It's the last one.

Secure everything.

[bleep] sloppy here.

We're going in?

Oh [bleep].

[Keith] Big sloppy is probably an understatement.

Still, it's pretty sloppy.

Hang on. [bleep]

[loud roaring]

[groaning]

[grunting]

[bleep] damn it!

[objects clattering]

[phone ringing]

Yeah.

-[Freddy speaking over phone] -The what?

The what?

A -- and what?

Are you wearing enough that I can at least

look at your shoulder?

If you take that --

Can you -- well, I will look this way

for -- temporarily, all right?

And it hurts, right --

-Right. -It's like right there.

Oh, right in here. OK, go ahead and move again.

Yeah, I feel a little popping, that noise in there.

Pretty much try and shut your right arm down for now, OK?

Grab a thing of peas and just ice your shoulder

every now and then.

I'm icing my shoulder with a chimichanga.

I couldn't find a bag of peas.

Feed a cold, starve a flu, and blunt force trauma?

Take two chimichangas and call me in the morning.

[Monte] What's going on?

He is?

OK, [bleep].

[bleep] kidding me?

Give me a second.

Wait, what the [bleep] going on?

What happened?

[OJ] He got from there to [bleep] here, he got hit.

How we doing?

Get another one, OJ.

Hey boss.

Ready, set. One, two, three.

Oh yeah, OK. All right.

-Scary. -[groaning]

-I'll show you where I hit it. -You're gonna feel it tomorrow.

I know, right? It's just on my right.

-Yeah. -Right in there.

It's already...

[Monte] OK, well, we're kind of officially in a jog mode

right now, but it's just [bleep].

[bleep] Yeah.

[groaning]

[Keith] There's definitely something going down.

Boat did one of these and he -- [whistles]

across the galley.

We're definitely worried about him.

A long ways away from Dutch Harbor

and this [bleep].

-Right there! -Yeah!

[Sig speaking]

Yeah, hey, Sig. I got you.

Oh, no. How's it look?

[deckhand] Big ass pot, man. [laughing]

[Rick] Nothing too great.

[deckhand] Holy [bleep]. Whoo!

-[laughing] -[Sig speaking]

Yeah, Rog.

Have you seen any drop offs? Like finding an edge?

What edge?

No.

Well, let me haul a few more, and I'll let you know.

I mean, I don't want to tell him everything right now.

I mean, that's how you get an edge.

That's how you get ahead in these industries nowadays.

[Sig] I know that he got information from Bobby.

He claimed that there's all kinds of crab around.

I kind of want to just reach out to Bobby.

[deckhand] Ugh, [bleep].

[phone ringing]

[Sig] You got me, Bobby?

Hey -- hey Sig, what's going on man?

-No, it's been a while. -[Bobby] Yeah, yeah.

Evidently, you saw some crab

up here in those cod pots of yours.

So I just want to kind of see what's what.

[Bobby speaking]

West, huh?

All right, pal. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. You have a good one.

Rick was sandbagging.

You know, he's sandbagging information.

[Rick] This is an epic start.

I think this is just the beginning.

-Whoo! -[deckhand] Oh, yeah

I feel like killing somebody,

because I don't like to be a sucker.

This [bleep] is what we did when we were children.

But two can play at that game.

I'm just gonna go up and see what Rick is really up to.

Let the games begin.

[Joe] This [bleep] is hand-sized red right back there.

Yeah, I'm worried about my brother.

There's no doubt.

Me and my brother,

we've been through a ton out here together.

Best of friends and arch enemies.

A little bit of both.

I'm gonna -- let you get out. OK?

Is my brother gonna end up on an airplane?

I guess that possibility has to exist.

The start of this trip has already been terrible.

And each string that I haul that's bad,

it takes me farther and farther away from ownership.

Last pot.

Chino, nice job...

-Whoo hoo! -[Jake] I got half steering.

If I lose starboard steering, I'm in real trouble.

So now what I have to do is fix this problem, find a new home,

move all this gear to that home.