[Johnathan singing]
♪♪ God bless America
♪♪ My home
♪♪ Say, does that Star Spangled... ♪
[people cheering]
Salute. Salute.
[Johnathan speaking]
-I'm a bad singer. -[man laughing] Yeah.
[voice cracking] Free.
I've never been invited to sing this song anywhere.
[narrator] After 12 grueling weeks on the water...
-[man] Chino's good! [laughs] -[people whooping]
You guys get ready to throw the lines. We're out of here right now.
Yeah, let's go.
[man] Whoo-hoo!
Chino's okay, and now we just need to get out there.
Better rest up 'cause we're gonna hit it hard.
[narrator] Five boats run day and night to catch their share
of the remaining $900,000 bairdi and golden king crab quotas.
[Monte] My brother had a mini stroke or something. I took him to Saint Paul.
He's no longer on board, and the next challenge
is the canneries trying to have us come in.
It's like, "Well, we don't have what we need."
[narrator] As processors in Dutch Harbor announced closure in just six days,
it's captains against the clock
to strike it rich or strike out.
[Sig] We're close to the end of our quota here.
Baby on the way.
The faster we get in, the faster I can get Clark home
and I get to be a grandfather again.
But if you start taking big risks with bold moves,
this could go backwards really fast.
[theme music playing]
[Jake speaking]
Watch the rail!
[man] Hey!
Neal, tank's slack.
Let's go, let's go!
[man] What the...
[narrator] 212 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor
on the golden king crab grounds.
[Mandy speaking]
It's going here. I mean, it's going a little slower than we thought.
[Mandy speaking]
I know. I know it's hard being home being pregnant
and watching Sailor all by yourself.
We just have to find that good spot that we can actually fish.
[Mandy speaking]
I don't know if that's an option at this point.
[Mandy speaking]
All right. Love you.
[Mandy speaking]
[narrator] On the Northwestern...
[Sig speaking]
Roger.
This string kind of went up and down in depth.
I've got 40 crab pots down in this hole right below us here
from shallow to the deep.
Golden king crab, the price is really high for these things.
$8 to $10 a pound, so we're trying to get as much as we can.
We're down to the wire.
[Sig speaking]
[narrator] Approaching a 10-pot prospect string
set near an 1,100-foot underwater precipice,
Captain Sig Hansen hunts for his final 6,000 pounds
and $60,000 of golden king crab quota.
All right, here we go. 181 fathoms. Up she comes.
There's a few in there.
[Sig speaking]
Nice and big?
[Clark] Nice and big!
-[Sig speaking] -[Clark] Going in the tank.
[Sig] Next pot's right there.
183 fathoms, a little bit deeper.
-[man 1] Yeah, baby! -[man 2] Yep.
Oh, yeah.
Got 'em!
Well, we're warming up. I mean, that looks good.
[deckhand laughing]
Yay!
How many?
-Twenty. -[Sig speaking]
All the deep ends are more, you know?
The deeper the better!
[Sig speaking]
So far, we're finding crab.
We've got, you know, teens, we've got single digits,
but I wish I had more line so we can go deeper.
-Hey. -Hey.
As we're getting close to that 190 fathoms, it's more crab.
So what if we strip some of the shots out of, say, 10 pots,
add those shots to these two strings,
and try to get deeper with them?
[Sig] What, like, down in this area? Right by that hole?
-Yeah, you go from 190, 210, 220. -Okay.
The only downside to this is that we are gonna lose
the ability to fish those 10 pots.
And have a bunch of steel sitting on deck.
Well, if we hit it, we're done. That's the thing.
-[Sig] Okay, start stripping, if that's what you want. -[Clark] All right.
You know, just remember, those pots don't fish on deck.
All right, let's see what happens.
[narrator] Still 5,800 pounds shy of their off-load goal,
and with the crab marching into a deep canyon,
Sig and Clark bet fishing fewer pots with more reach
will cap off their quota.
Nobody likes to leave a bunch of gear on deck,
but every single sign is "Go deeper," so it's worth a shot.
At least that's the hope.
[narrator] 125 miles southeast...
[all exclaiming]
[bleep] Oh [bleep] dude.
Oh, God.
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
[Jake] Oh, my God. Wow.
-[man] Whoo! -[Jake] Damn!
[bleep], you guys. I don't know.
If I can avoid the wave, we'll be okay,
but we're gonna get those every once in a while.
[man] Whoo! [bleep] Damn.
It comes up all the way to these windows,
which is about three to four stories high.
Yeah, might be worth a try.
What do you guys think?
It better be [bleep] loaded if you make me go outside.
[bleep] it. Let's [bleep] do it.
Okay.
Team Titan. Let's go.
[Felipe] Yeah! Team Titan!
[Jake] Off-load's coming, cannery's closing.
Everything's happened really fast now.
I was supposed to deliver four days from now.
If I don't get this crab to the dock soon,
we're all screwed and I'll be out of a job.
The owners are very serious
about having me under scrutiny.
This is strictly a trial basis.
I don't really have an option there.
I'm only as good as my last haul.
Now we're in
72 fathoms,
so we'll go out and we'll just try it one pot at a time.
All right, so how it's gonna work,
you guys are gonna stay up forward,
I'll hit the buzzer when I'm next to the pot
I'll buzz you when I get there.
It's a big chance to get hurt right now,
so everybody have to get safe.
[Jake speaking]
Here we go.
[buzzer beeps]
Come on, come on, get it.
Get it, get it, get it.
[deckhand] All right, let's roll!
[Jake] Okay, he got it into the block.
This is [bleep] up, dude.
Look at this [bleep] right here.
[bleep] Nasty out.
Let's see what we get.
[deckhand] No.
[bleep] Not enough to even feed a family.
Where's the crab, Unkie?
[deckhands exclaiming]
[Jake] This weather is not cooperating. It is bad.
Oh, my God.
I can't even hold the [bleep] boat up against it.
Here comes one right now.
Oh, [bleep], a big [bleep] roller!
[deckhands shouting]
Watch out!
[deckhand exclaiming]
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
[deckhands shouting]
Watch out!
-[deckhands yelling] -[bleep]
[Jake speaking]
Watch out, throw the shot over!
[bleep]
[Felipe] Try to [bleep] haul [bleep] fast. You see?
I [bleep] took a wave and the [bleep] pot [bleep] went over.
[Felipe speaking]
It slid right out of the dogs. That's how big a roll it was.
All right, that's it. [bleep] we're done.
Everybody upstairs! Go, go, go.
[Jake] I was pushing them too hard.
Just gonna have to sit out for however long it takes.
But I still have a delivery date I have to make it to
and right now, I'm gonna shut down for few hours
and start when we can.
But that was a close call.
[narrator] 90 miles north on the western bairdi crab grounds...
[deckhand] Show me the money.
What is this?
Damn it.
It's not what we [bleep] wanted to see.
[narrator] Aboard the Wizard...
That's no good, man.
You know, my brother left with his medical issues,
and we're out here going it alone.
[deckhand] First pot sucked.
Two!
[Monte speaking]
Two [bleep] crab. [bleep]
We need to be pulling 50s. Twos ain't gonna cut it.
[Monte] One spot that's basically a circular zone,
a black hole, it is really defined
and quite a bit deeper than everything around it.
We're gonna try something a little hairy,
then that's what we're gonna do.
[narrator] Five days after Keith Colburn suffered
a transient ischemic attack,
also known as a stroke,
brother Monte stalks his final 18,000 pounds of crab in the one place
out of the fleet's reach.
A steep bank surrounding an underwater basin.
[line ringing]
-[line ringing] -Come on, bro.
[Keith speaking]
Hello, how are you?
[Keith] I'm... Yeah, I'm still having lots of tests done, but, um...
[Monte] Well, last couple strings have been really bad.
You know, the black hole is below me. I don't know.
[Keith speaking]
I get it.
I'm just not sure what to do here, you know--
[Keith speaking]
Okay. I'm gonna let you go. I'll get back to you.
[Keith speaking]
-All right. Bye. -[Keith] Bye.
You know, I get it.
And I know it's not what my brother would do or recommend,
but I don't think I have a choice.
[deckhand] Roger.
These pots have gotta go over, like, right when I beep.
[deckhand] Okay.
[Monte] I'm gonna make a turn here.
We got 99 fathoms of line on the gear,
but we're gonna get 'em down into 90 in this bank.
It's about like this,
and we're gonna try to pop 'em off along that edge.
[buzzer beeps]
[buzzer beeps twice]
Come on.
[buzzer beeps twice]
[deckhand] Going over!
[bleep] Damn it!
It looks like it went over too [bleep] deep.
[deckhand groans]
I'm gonna wheel around here.
Yeah, rog.
[Monte] We're running out of time. I know that.
We gotta get this pot before it gets to the bottom of that hole.
[Monte speaking]
[deckhand speaking]
[Monte speaking]
Let's go!
[deckhand speaking]
Right on.
Whoo!
[Monte speaking]
going back along this edge here,
so when I honk, go ahead and be ready,
Yeah, roger!
[buzzer honks]
Go, go, go.
Whoo!
Hopefully we get these back, and even more importantly,
[narrator] 106 miles southwest
on the golden king crab grounds...
Aboard the Time Bandit...
[Johnathan speaking]
[Neal] We had to come over and check this out
'cause we used to fish opies down here
and we'd find golden crab
hanging on the back of pots.
About 125, 128 fathoms.
He's been wanting to do that for three years
since we've been coming out here,
Neal's been wanting to go there.
"Got to go over there, got to go over there."
We need another real big hit.
We're just out of time,
so we just gotta get through this gear and go to town and off-load.
I don't want that pressure. I'll leave it to you, Johnny.
[Johnathan] Nope, it's all you, brother.
It's your set.
[deckhand] Oh! Whoo!
I don't need that pressure. I got enough pressure.
[narrator] Approaching two strings set by brother Neal,
Captain Johnathan Hillstrand looks to a deep 800-foot bank
showered in heavily baited pots
for their final 11,000 pounds
of golden king crab.
[Neal] Okay. First pot.
[deckhand] Whoo!
I hope this works. You may have been lucky, no?
You gotta finish this trip up right.
[man] Time Bandit, baby!
Come on, baby!
[Neal] Come on, come on.
[deckhand] Oh, welcome aboard, big boy.
-What's the deal? -This one's full of crab.
-Whoo! -[Johnathan] That one's a good one. That's a good one.
[deckhand] Welcome aboard.
-[Johnathan] Those are big crab. -That's good.
That's a good pot, guys.
Yeah!
[man whooping]
Four, five, six, seven, eight.
One-four!
-[Johnathan] Whoo-hoo. -[deckhand] One-four!
[Neal] Next pot.
The hair's standing on my neck.
[deckhand] Come on. Another big pot. Oh, yeah, baby!
There it is.
Guys. Look at that one.
What the bleep-bleep-bleep-bleep.
Neal, you did it!
Thirty-one!
Whoo-hoo.
My brother. My brother.
Oh!
-Whoo! -Whoo!
[Johnathan speaking]
[all exclaiming, cheering]
[deckhand speaking]
Okay. [bleep] Okay, thanks.
Neal, the tank's slack, dude.
Tank's slack.
Slack tank means the pump's not running
and the crab are not getting the water they need.
And then it starts kicking the [bleep] out of them like a washing machine
and you just crush all your crab up.
If we lose this crab pump, we're gonna lose everything.
We're gonna kill all our crab.
[narrator] On the Time Bandit...
Neal's running down.
[Neal speaking]
It's still full, right?
[Neal speaking]
There it goes, back on.
There we go.
Now we got it.
How's everything going down there, Neal?
[Johnathan] Perfect.
It must be either a short or a bad leg.
[Johnathan] When we get to Dutch
we'll fix everything.
But for now, we've just gotta keep that crab pump running
until we get to town.
Back in action.
[man] Come to Papa!
[Johnathan] We're almost done.
I just got to keep hauling gear.
I need 1800 more crab.
Got to keep that damn crab pump running.
So we'll see.
[narrator] 50 miles west,
on the golden king crab grounds...
[Sig speaking on radio]
[man 1] Roger!
[narrator] Aboard the Northwestern...
220 is the target depth, okay.
220!
[Sig on radio]
When I say go, you gotta go.
Okay, well,
we're ready to start setting here.
Clark had an idea.
Basically take some of the pots, strip them,
and then, we've got extra line,
we can add to some of our other gear
so we can go deeper.
Hopefully, if we get down to like 220,
that's going to be an even better spot than 190.
I mean, it just stands to reason,
that all our crab came from deep,
might as well try a little deeper and see what happens.
He's really looking for that big banger, you know?
That big hit.
And I don't blame him.
But the negative side is,
you've got a lot of pots on deck
that aren't fishing for you.
So, if it fails, you're losing a lot more time.
You just gotta work harder
to get back what you would have had in the first place.
So you're taking a big risk.
[Sig on radio] Okay.
I'm just gonna be looking at the meter,
so I'm not worried about you guys so much.
[Clark] Roger!
[Sig on radio]
[man yelling] Going over!
Yeah!
That's a lot of line. [laughing]
These are going over 1200 feet down,
so they're deep.
[man yelling] Whoo!
Yeah!
I wish I had more line.
It's not the way you want things to be, but that's life.
[man] Going over!
We're just going to keep setting these pots over
in that same depth.
Hopefully it will pay off.
Yeah. There you go!
Yeah, whoo, good game!
[Sig] We'll see.
[narrator] 120 miles southeast...
[Jake] We got 10,000 on board.
And then we've got eight left to get.
So we've got to catch up for all that lost time.
You guys have been laying in your bunk for a while.
You might want to do some stretches,
some jumping jacks,
Everybody look good and feel good?
Shyanne, you look like
you could use another 48 hours off.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
[narrator] Aboard the Titan Explorer...
[sighs] Oh.
Got one more shot to get through this gear
before I off-load.
This season is just [bleep] just...
[bleep] sucks.
every [bleep] part of [bleep] about it [bleep].
I don't own this boat.
I'm just a hired gun.
And I've got to deliver if I want to keep my job.
That's, that's a fact, Jack.
[exhales]
I was trying to jog and wait the weather out.
But that's not gonna happen.
So,
back to work.
We've got to try.
We've got a quota to fill.
We're [bleep] crazy, man.
This is our [bleep] job.
They've got to turn on it on the last second,
which is gonna expose them.
Well, we're in it now.
[clanking]
[man screaming gleefully]
Come on!
[man] Woo-hoo!
[bleep] take that all day.
[man] Yeah.
Whoo!
47!
47? I'll take 47.
That's the first pot.
So let's see what's in the second and the third.
It's getting bad.
I'm having a hell of a time trying to fight
to just keep the boat straight.
Oh, come on, turn [bleep]!
Watch the rail!
[narrator] On the Titan Explorer...
Watch the rail!
[man 1] What the [bleep].
You guys okay?
It's nasty out, man!
[clicks]
[bleep] Man!
I have a double jacket and I'm still wet,
all the way to my... pants!
Nobody got taken out.
But Chino got wet,
Shyanne got... They all got wet.
Every single one of them.
Just blasted.
I think it's nap time. This is [bleep]...
[Jake] Yeah!
Okay, here we go.
All right, let's see what we got.
It's starting to pay off now.
Right on!
[Jake] 74!
I'll take it!
And I'll take it again and again as long...
As long as I keep getting it, we'll be okay.
Roger that.
I'm gonna set these right back here.
Strike while the iron's [bleep] hot.
[narrator] 116 miles northwest,
on the golden king crab grounds...
You guys ready?
[narrator] Aboard the Northwestern...
[man 1] Yep.
All right. Just be careful.
Roger!
Well, my son-in-law, Clark,
wanted to fish in the deep hole.
And I get it. All the signs lead deep.
But hopefully, there's a payoff here.
We could either be in a total desert,
or we could drop on the, you know, main pile of...
[Sig] The first one is coming up.
Roger.
[Sig] If we hit something big, We're gonna save time,
we're going to save fuel and money.
If we fail, well...
...we have nothing to show for it,
because we have to go home in three days.
Whoo!
[yelling] Catch some crab!
[Sig] Fishing like this
is some of the deepest I've been into.
Sometimes, you know, you just roll the dice.
If you hit 'em, you hit 'em.
-[man 1 laughing] -[Clark] Yeah!
[Sig] Pot's coming up here.
It's a lot!
[all cheering]
[bleep]
[laughing]
[Clark] All big!
[man] Put them in the tank.
58!
[Sig] All right.
Maybe Clark's instincts were right.
Or maybe he just wanted to go home so bad,
he's willing them in the pot. [laughing]
Oh, yeah!
Look at the size of these beauties!
[yelling] Yeah! Let's go!
Yeah! [laughing]
-[man 1] Oh, yeah! -[man 2 cheering]
Biggest one yet!
That's what we want right there.
[Clark] Whoo, I told you!
Give me the dice, I'll roll 'em.
Well, it was worth stealing some line
off those other pots.
No question about it.
[man] Going over!
All right, first one's over.
[Clark yelling]
[Sig] So we're going to stay on that edge,
and just run them out back and forth, same depth,
let the gear soak.
Knock on wood,
we can find some crab
and get this thing over with...
...safely!
[narrator] 144 miles northeast...
[Monte speaking over radio]
[man] Roger.
[narrator] Aboard the Wizard...
We haven't been doing very good here,
so we've taken some gear and ran it down here deep,
around the black hole, hopefully not in it...
in an effort to try to finish this thing off here.
But this is gonna be a battle.
I can just feel it.
Pretty risky setting all of her gear on the ledge,
but high risk, high reward.
[Monte speaking on radio]
[Cody] Here we go.
Get them, boys!
[man 2 cheering]
[Cody] Okay, coming at you.
Come on, baby. Let's get a couple here.
Every one counts.
-[Cody] Let's go, baby. Big crab! -[man 2] Come on!
[Monte on radio] Coming up!
[Cody] Whoo!
That's what we're talking about.
Oh, [bleep] right on.
Looking good!
Now we're talking.
[Cody] Like that?
Plenty more where that came from. Yeah!
78? Wow! Right on.
Boy, did we ever need that.
Those add up real nice.
Next one here.
I'm having a hard time finding these pots.
Should be right in front of me.
Yeah, this one's not where it's supposed to be.
It's obviously deeper than we thought.
But, it can't be that [bleep] far away.
Oh-oh!
Yeah, roger.
My brother told me
not to set the pots down here, straight up.
Do not do it.
And I did it anyway.
Went over it a little too deep,
which is nobody's fault but my own.
So now it's on me to get it back.
Can you untie that, please?
So we've got a drag hook.
What we can do is, tie a shot of line on it.
[both grunting]
You throw it in the ocean and you do circles
around the mark where the pot is,
and you'll know if you'll get a hold of it,
because it will stretch out.
We're ready.
[Monte] Okay, go ahead and throw it over.
[Cody] Let her go.
[Monte] Let's see what happens.
[Jake] Let me see that.
There's no sand fleas in there!
Damn!
Are those sand fleas?
[squelching]
Kinda.
[Jake] Little bit?
Yeah, it's more than just a little bit.
This would make a good soup.
No way!
[all gagging, vomiting]
[coughing]
That was pretty bad.
[laughing]
That's horrible.
It...
That's the most disgusting thing I've ever done.
[narrator] They say variety is the spice of life,
but some spices, like maybe sand fleas,
better left off the menu.
Aboard the Wizard...
We're ready.
Okay. Go ahead and throw it over.
Let her go.
[splashing]
Okay. I'm gonna do some circling here.
[man] Roger.
[seagulls squawking]
[Monte] Still coming around.
You know, there's just a lot going on
in order to actually turn the boat,
tow that device across the buoy line
to where it grabs it.
It's really hard to do.
But I mean, we're gonna have to try it.
Okay, go ahead and bring her up.
Let's see if we... if we got anything.
Looks like we got it.
-Oh, yeah. -[man 1] Oh, yeah, baby!
[all cheering]
We got it.
[man] I'm coming here, hold on.
[man 1] Hold on, bring it back!
[Monte] Okay. Come on, baby.
Coming aboard!
Okay, coming up.
All right. We got that [bleep].
Wow.
You guys are awesome. That was [bleep] badass.
It's hard to believe we actually pulled that off.
And... [bleep]
[Monte] All right. Give me a count on that pot.
32 on the retrieved cage, at the black hole.
Right on. We can erase that mark.
Those are some of the better scores that we've had.
You know, those crabs are gonna make
a big difference in us getting what we need.
Trying to get through it,
hopefully to finish strong here.
The tank went slack and Neal fixed it down there.
But he's got to keep that damn crab pump running.
We're living on a prayer here.
This is no way to crab fish.
Coming, they're coming!
Coming hot!
Oh, no.
Stack it.
This sucks.
-Ay, ay, ay! -[man] Damn it.
[clanking]
All right, dropped off to nothing at the very top.
We really need another $100,000 of crab on board
to make this thing all work.
This ain't gonna do it.
I gotta pick them up.
And I gotta find a place, stretch them out. So...
Hopefully, we'll run into something.
Don't come easy out here. Nothing comes easy.
[Jake] Watch out! Watch out! Here comes one.
Everybody's been working for over 24 hours.
They want to be done, they want to eat.
They want to be dry, they want to be warm,
they want to sleep.
Mmm, no.
You can't [bleep] think about that [bleep] right now.
[grunting] Oh! Stack her.
[Jake] Despite my best efforts,
these pots just are not good.
This season is just [bleep]. Just [bleep] sucks.
Every [bleep] part of [bleep] about it.
We have to get this crab caught as quickly as possible
or we don't make money.
[man 1] Coming aboard!
I just want to let you know we are headed in.
Well, we have 26 thousand eight hundred something.
[all cheering]
They're big!
There you go!
-[man 1] Let's go! -[man 2] Whoo!
[man] Whoo!
Pretty good pot.
[Monte] All right. Talk to you later. Bye.
[men cheering]
You know, I can't remember the last time I was this happy
to be heading into Dutch Harbor.
[bleep], yeah, baby!
Yeah!
Oh, yeah!
Bring the money! Let's go!
That's beautiful.
Big keepers!
Well, we're getting close to our quota,
I just need to get the string up
and get into town.
We've got babies on the way.
We gotta get Clark home here.
[man] Hitch her on.
And here's the next one.
All right.
What the?
[bleep]
[narrator] Next time, on the season finale...
[Sig] That pot still in the block?
[Clark] Yeah!
Get the pot secured.
Let me think. Let me think.
The weather is going on the side,
and these are 20-foot seas.
Watch the rail. Watch the rail!
[men grunting]
Killer whale.
[Jonathan] Tryin' to crab fish!
Look at that!