[wind howls]
[Keith speaks]
[Keith sighs]
[man speaks through radio]
Arctic Sea.
The biggest boat in the fleet.
[Keith speaks]
At some point, Bering Sea is going to win.
[man speaks through radio]
[Sig] It's a mayday.
[Johnathan] It's not good.
[Jake] There's nine people on board.
See if the Coast Guard can even get to these guys.
[coast guard speaks]
The weather's gonna be total [bleep]
[Keith speaks]
...this is a death trap.
-[man #1] Oh, we're adrift! -[man #2] Roger.
[man speaks through radio]
What the [bleep]?
[coast guard] Careful. Hold on, hold on.
[coast guard] Hold on!
[coast guard groans]
Let's just hope everybody comes home safe.
[narrator] January.
Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
[Rick] Kind of alarming.
I've been fishing for 32 years.
And I've never pulled up to this pot dock with it iced
in like this.
I mean, that's how cold and how miserable
this winter is gonna be.
[reporter #1] National Weather Service is out of Alaska.
These are three of the ten coldest days
in the last decade.
24 hours before the start of the winter season.
[reporter #2] Fishing boats are frozen at the dock,
and at least three people are still unaccounted for.
The 44-boat Bering Sea Fleet braces for what the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts to be
six weeks of freezing temperatures, ten degrees below
the historic mean.
All the crab being way up to the far north to
the Russian border.
This year, I think the fleet's gonna play the ice game.
And with Fish and Game's annual survey pointing to a mass
exodus of bairdi and opilio to higher latitudes.
They're already chipping ice up there on the bow.
And that's what capsizes boats out here.
Captains touch down,
readying their crews to steam headlong
into the farthest reaches of the northern grounds.
We're gonna look for the opilio up
by the Russian border.
But, uh, it's not just pointing at a map and saying
that's what you're gonna do, you've gotta get there.
[groans]
To snatch their portion of the newly minted
$68 million bounty from the jaws of the Arctic depths.
[Johnathan] Way north is gonna have
very cold temperatures and freezing spray.
Lost a lot of boats from ice.
So, Godspeed.
[Jake] Winter's here, man.
You can feel it in your bones.
I got a quarter million pounds of opies.
That's worth about $1.25 million.
Cornelia Marie was built for opies.
She's got a nice skirt on the bow, so you can smash in
at six, seven knots.
After taking the helm of the storied Cornelia Marie
this past fall, made famous by legendary skipper Phil Harris.
Everybody wants the big time.
They just don't wanna work for it.
Captain Jake Anderson readies the 128-foot crabber for
a three-day journey to Navarin Canyon,
the second largest in the world,
near the western edge of the fabled Russian line.
[Jake] Albino.
This is where we're going all the way here.
[Albinio chuckles softly]
Oh, [bleep].
How far off the Russian line are we?
-[Jake] Right on that [bleep]. -[bleep] at 'em.
[Jake chuckles]
Close enough to be submarines beneath us.
We're going 550 miles up southwest down the line.
[Albinio] Well, we're all fueled up.
-How many pots? -Got 109 crab pots on board.
[Jake] You don't think we can carry more?
Uh-uh.
[pole clanks]
[Jake] Yeah.
All right, break those chains, boys.
Yeah.
All right.
[Albinio] That's pushing it.
[Jake] This boat's a beast.
Phil designed it that way.
All right, well, I'm trusting you.
[Jake] With your life.
[Jake chuckles]
Yeah.
Across the docks.
[Keith] Hey, hold it right there for a second.
Stop!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
We're not going more than three high, OK?
-No? -No.
-[Gary] OK. -How much shrink wrap you got?
Plenty.
[Keith] All right, get ready to start wrapping the boat.
-OK. -Take it off.
-Roger. -Get it off.
Coming down.
On the Wizard.
This year on the survey, it showed that there were crab
further north, but nobody's counting the opies
over there in like five years.
So...
we're starting west of the island,
and we will probably be by ourselves.
Turning his back on the Fish and Game survey,
and unlike Jake, departing with fewer pots due to fear of
building ice, Captain Keith Colburn bets $7,000
in fuel on territory 100 miles west of
the traditional grounds.
We've got about combined 300-350,000 pounds of opies.
So it's race for the crab, every man for himself.
Across the harbor.
[Sig] What time was this plane supposed to land?
[deckhand speaks]
I thought it was supposed to be around now.
On the Northwestern.
[Sig] This season is a little bigger for us right now
because Mandy did manage to rally some quota.
Problem is, she wanted to stay home with the kids,
and I understand that.
So she got a replacement, but I don't know this person.
On the hook for an additional 100,000 pounds of
opilio crab quota, totaling a staggering $1 million.
I'm a little paranoid because we're a very
tight-knit family here.
Captain Sig Hansen gets
an unexpected addition to his crew.
I have never done opies before, and getting to learn opies
from Sig is the master class of crab fishing.
I get to work with one of the best of the best.
Hailing from Kodiak...
Hell yeah, some crabs! Whoo!
...and daughter to the late captain, Gary Nielsen,
Sophia, or Bob, enters her eighth year
in the school of hard knocks.
Oh, [bleep].
-[[deckhand] Go! -[Sig] Whoo!
With tenures on the Saga...
I'm incredibly nervous, and I'm scared.
...the Seabrooke...
Fake it till you make it.
That's what Greg taught me.
[deckhand] Yeah, that's what we're looking for.
...and the Aleutian Lady.
[Rick] Nice work, Bob.
[exhales heavily]
[deckhand] Whoo!
Now, Bob readies herself for her first winter
on the Bering Sea.
I think he'll push me, put me in situations that I probably
feel uncomfortable, and that's gonna be good.
[Sig] OK.
[Bob] Hi, Sig.
I'm Bob. Nice to meet you.
-Sorry, I'm very nervous. -Are you?
-I am. -Can you tell me why?
[Bob] I know that you've been doing it a long time.
You've been in the game for a long time.
-Not at all. -Huh?
[Bob] You don't look a day over a hundred.
[Sig] So I do need extra help.
And I'm hoping you can bring that to the table.
It is winter.
It gets real
fast.
I don't know what to fear more, you or the ice.
-[Sig] Fear the ice. -OK.
Yeah.
You got any questions? Just say something.
All right. Thank you so much.
-OK. -I appreciate it.
[Sig] I do trust Mandy's judgment.
But I mean, she's gonna have to prove herself, bottom line.
[deckhand #1] Go! Draw the line!
[Johnathan] Up north by Russia.
-I don't wanna go up there. -[deckhand #2] Hop on.
One of the coldest winters in years.
[deckhand #1] Move it, boys!
So I'm gonna start south of the fleet.
-[deckhand #2] Ready to go. -Yep?
OK, we're going fishing.
-Let's go. -[deckhand #1] Let's go!
[crew chants]
[Johnathan] Getting ready for the ice.
[deckhand #3] Oh, yeah.
All right, guys, we can go ahead and throw lines here.
[deckhand #1] All right!
-Whoo! -[Keith] We're going west.
We're gonna have two or three inches of ice
on this gear. I'm just gonna slow way down.
Just trying to keep this boat from making any more ice.
[deckhand #1] Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Fellas ready?
[deckhand #2] Yeah! Whoo!
[Jake speaks]
You have to do things you have to do in order to make money
and go home.
The crab pots are bullets.
In a firefight, you don't ask for less ammunition,
you ask for more ammunition. -[deckhand #1] Go, go, go!
Go!
[deckhand #2] Whenever you're ready.
My bunk is in the forepeak. I'm living in the pantry, yeah.
Livin' la vida loca right now.
Well, we're heading out for opie trip.
I'm gonna head up north to the Russian line.
That's my plan anyway.
It's already very cold, twenty-five-plus foot seas.
There's some big weather ahead of us.
Hopefully we can get through this without any issues.
[deckhand #1] We're out of here.
[deckhand #2] Let's go, let's go.
[deckhand #3] Fish boat, baby, fish boat.
[deckhand #4] Let's go!
-[Jake] Let's go fishing, baby. -[deckhand #1] Whoo!
650 miles northwest of Dutch Harbor.
Over the 62-mile-wide submarine trench, Navarin Canyon.
[deckhand #1] Going over.
[deckhand #2] Whoo!
Aboard the Cornelia Marie.
So I got these pots, 109 fathoms in the water near
the border, 10 miles from the Russian line.
[deckhand #1] Over!
[Jake] Been a long wait.
Bold strategy, taking out 20 more pots
than the team had planned for. But...
I know they can handle it.
-[deckhand #2] Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! -[deckhand #3] Yeah, baby!
[Jake] Look at that.
Right on the other side of the line, it's got the contours
that are just perfect for fishing.
[deckhand #1] Going over.
[Jake] Deeper...
in that colder water.
I'm more curious than anything.
Hey, Albinio.
Yeah?
We got enough to add two shots per pot?
[Albinio] We can make it happen.
[Jake] I think I can use the tide to throw the pots over the line.
I wanna see what happens.
[Albinio] Time to do some work, right?
Banking the tide will keep his buoys in U.S.
fishing waters, Jake spies an opportunity to set 20
well-placed pots over the line
onto the Russian seafloor below.
[Jake] We'll go towards the line,
and then we'll turn, spit out the pot.
The pot and the buoys will go drift over here,
and then the pot will still be over there,
but the buoys will be on our side.
Well, technically, we'll be 100% legal.
I'm gonna turn around here, and then I'll get to the line.
You guys dump the pot.
[deckhand #1 & man #2] Roger.
[Jake speaks]
[deckhand #1] Roger.
[Jake] Oh, there's the line.
I'm gonna make a huge, hard, starboard turn.
-[deckhand #1] Roger. -[deckhand #2] Yeah, baby!
All right, here we go.
[Albinio] Going over.
[crew yells and cheers]
[deckhand #3] Let's go to war.
All right, see you later. Bombs away.
Whoa.
Hang on, here comes the big one. It's gonna roll.
[deckhand #1] Roger that.
Oh, whoa!
[Jake] Watch around.
Ooh, [bleep].
Oh, [bleep].
That wanted a piece of meat right there.
OK, go ahead.
[deckhand #1] Over.
[deckhand #2 speaks]
[deckhand #1] Oh, yeah!
Sent from America with love.
50 miles northeast, up the Russian line.
Are all these boats across the line over there?
Kapitan Kon -- Kolesnikov. "Kolesenikov."
-Kolens -- -Kolesnikov, yeah.
Kapita -- it's Kapitan.
-Is it Kapitan? -Kapitan with a K.
-It's Captain with a K. -Kapitan.
-Kapitan Kolesnikov. -Oh, you're right, Kapitan.
Aboard the Northwestern.
[Sig] These guys are...
I mean, there's a bunch of them out there.
They got this place slammed,
but I don't know what they're setting on.
I mean, I don't trust these charts.
I wanna know exactly how deep those guys are.
Is it even accurate on their side?
[Sig] You know, we can go look.
[Bob] I hope you know what you're doing.
Looking to glean fishing depths from the Russian fleet,
Captain Sig Hansen and skipper in training Bob Nielsen
approach the outer edge of the U.S.
exclusive economic zone, a maritime boundary where
American fishermen can legally set their pots.
You're not supposed to fish over there.
Doesn't mean we can't go over there.
Steaming into Russia's domain, where counterparts may enforce
their own version of crime and punishment upon captains
who don't keep their gear stowed.
-Karl, is that pot in the rack? -[Karl] Yeah.
[Sig] I just put the shots back in it, secure it.
We're gonna go over the line to Russia.
[Karl] Roger.
[Sig speaks]
Crossing the line right now.
Here's the first boat right up ahead of us.
Just go west of him a little bit.
[Bob] What's the depth? What are you reading?
It was 80. Ha!
Now, here's another one right in front of us.
We're just gonna weave through 'em.
Oh, there's a pot. It's 80 fathoms.
See this bogie over here at your nine o'clock?
He's big. He's over 300 feet.
That's like a military boat or something.
Where's he going?
-[Sig] He's coming right at me. -He's headed for us right now?
[Sig] Yes.
We gotta get her turned around right now.
[Bob] Better floor it!
I'm going to the wood. Nine.
That's ten.
That's all I got, eleven knots, Bob.
He's still coming.
This guy is really coming on.
On the Northwestern,
in the Russian exclusive economic zone.
He's still coming, he's a half a mile behind me.
Looks like he's gaining on us.
That's it. That's all I got.
How much farther till we're back?
[Sig] I got one mile.
He's hungry, man. The guy is still coming.
I think he just wants to know who I am.
I got my AIS off.
♪♪
OK, I'm at the border here.
He just turned. He just slowed down.
Oh, my God.
[Bob] Promise me we'll never do that again.
I promise. But it was worth it.
I mean, I was right.
Every one of those Russian boats had pots.
That's like 80 fathoms and less, so we can own that,
and I bet you there's crab there.
All right, guys, we're on the other side.
[Sig speaks]
Oh!
Let her go!
[crew yelling in distance]
[crew cheers]
Well, hopefully our trip to Russia pays off.
[man speaks through radio]
It's a mayday.
[Jake] What the [bleep]?
Arctic Sea. There's nine people on board.
[man speaks through radio]
That's the biggest boat in the fleet.
It looks like they're somewhere
on the north side of St. George.
[Keith] That boat's in serious trouble right now.
Let's say a little prayer for the boys on the boat.
Let's say a prayer for those boys in the helicopter.
Just days after the fleet launch.
[coast guard speaks]
The United States Coast Guard
responds to winter's first mayday.
[coast guard speaks]
Activating the search and rescue crew of a land-based
MH 60 Jayhawk for the flight to the 134-foot Arctic Sea
just north of St. George Island's rocky shoreline.
I just can't believe what I'm hearing right now.
I'm picturing nine guys
up against the side of the wheelhouse,
staring at a wall of rocks, taking on water.
You know what? [exhales]
We haven't set the gear yet.
[Keith speaks]
Clock is ticking big time right now.
360 miles northwest.
[Jake] You don't wanna be out here without steering.
This is screwed up bad. And they're in a bad spot.
Along the Russian line.
[Jake] Too far west.
Too far west and too far north.
I couldn't even get to these guys.
Aboard the Cornelia Marie.
Just waiting for the tide to switch, guys.
[Jake and deckhand speak]
After using the current to carry 20 pots
onto Russian grounds, Jake prepares for the tide
to turn and push his buoys back into American waters.
[Albinio speaks]
It is, isn't it?
You can see the bags just shooting across the bow
right there.
It's over the line.
Starboard side. I can pick it up.
All right, it's go time.
[Albinio] Whoo-hoo!
Spent a lot of fuel getting this far up.
Better hope it pays off.
Here we go.
[deckhand #1] Pots coming up.
On the Russian line.
Better hope it pays off.
[deckhand #1] Pots coming up.
[indistinct] [bleep]
Finally. [bleep] yeah, that's
what we need.
Holy, [bleep]
[Albinio speaks]
[Jake] Yeah.
Thank you, Mother Russia.
If this stays consistent, then we can get
something done here.
54 miles northeast.
There's a lot of activity up to the north here, so we did
kinda sneak across the line to take a peek.
We got our information, but we used that to kind of set
our gear in the same depth, similar area on this side.
That was not on my 2026 bingo card.
[Sig] Yeah.
OK, string goes north and south.
-Is that a one bagger? -Yeah, it looks like it.
There's a one bagger.
[Clark] OK, Roger.
Sometimes they chafe off at the knot, you know,
right on the end of the bag.
[Bob] Most of the trailer line is still there.
[deckhand groans]
Was it frayed? Did somebody run it over?
It looks that way.
[Sig] Somebody went through here.
All right, first pot coming up.
I'll see if the Russian line pays off.
-[deckhand #1] Whoo! -[bleep], oh, yeah.
-There it is. -Hell, yeah.
[deckhand #1] Yeah, baby!
-We're in 'em. -[deckhand #2] Nice and clean opies.
-One-nine-one! -[Bob] Damn, that's pretty good.
Is that one just a diver, too?
Where's the trailer bag?
OK, it's a one-bagger. That's two of them.
Somebody's [bleep] with us.
[Bob] You think they crossed over here [bleep] with our gear?
[Sig] Doesn't make sense to me.
-[deckhand #1] Whoo. -[deckhand #2] Yeah!
Looking good.
[crew cheers]
-[deckhand #1] Two-oh-eight. -[Sig] Two-oh-eight.
It's getting better kind of the closer
we go over there, huh? -That way.
Close to the Russian border here.
-[deckhand #1] Whoo! -[deckhand #2] Yeah!
[crew cheers]
It's pretty obvious to me that the trend is to the north.
[crew continues cheering]
[Sig] 245.
Need to get some gear in there, man.
Gotta head them off at the pass, so to speak.
I just wish I had more gear, you know, because the amount
I brought up isn't gonna cover it.
300 miles southeast,
on the southern opilio grounds.
[deckhand #1] Coming over.
Let's get a count.
Bairdi. Nope.
Sixteen are not good enough.
So I'm stacking.
-Womp, womp, womp. -[phone rings]
Aboard the Time Bandit.
[phone continues ringing]
Hey, Sig.
[Sig speaks]
It's not good, man.
Hopefully they can get 'em all off.
[Sig] Yeah. Well...
[Johnathan] I'm just stopped.
Just gotta dial in on the bigger crab
and pull out deeper, I think.
How you doing, buddy?
[Sig] No, we found life.
But it's obvious to me they're just marching north.
They're heading right for the line.
What are you thinking?
So, uh, I don't know.
I mean, if you've got gear that needs a little help,
I would bring it this way.
I feel like I'm all alone. I'm outnumbered.
[Bob] Come on, John. It'll be fun.
America!
I'm gonna defend America.
[Johnathan & Sig laugh]
All right, Mr. Norway.
Mr. Norwegian.
Twice the gear, twice the crab.
And all those American crabs stay in American boats
on the American side.
Count me in.
Count me in for 100 pots, and I'm heading your way.
All right, pal.
[Johnathan through phone] OK, [indistinct]
He's Putin 'em on the boat. Get it?
-Putin? -Oh.
On the northern side of St. George Island.
[coast guard speaks]
[Johnathan] It's not good, man.
Say a prayer for these guys.
Wow.
293 miles from base,
the U.S. Coast Guard prepares to extract nine souls
from the 134-foot Arctic Sea
as 12-foot breakers pin her hull against
the jagged coastline.
Waves are crashing on top of that boat.
What are you gonna do? This is unreal.
[coast guard speaks]
[Keith speaks]
Freezing spray, northerly weather, huge waves
just smashing the boat.
[Jake] Come on, guys.
Get 'em.
[coast guard speaks]
They're doing it.
They're making it happen right now.
[coast guard speaks]
They got one. Got one guy.
[coast guard speaks]
I hope they can get everybody off of there safely.
[coast guard speaks]
On the northern side of St. George Island.
They're sending another basket down.
I hope they can get everybody off there safely.
[coast guard speaks]
They got the third guy now.
[coast guard speaks]
There's eight.
[coast guard speaks]
Ooh.
Bang! Nine guys in the helo.
[coast guard speaks]
[Sig] Thank you, Coast Guard.
Thank you.
We got 'em all.
Every last one.
That's scary just thinking about it.
All right, pot coming up.
[Albinio groans]
[Jake] Right now I gotta get a handle on this.
Just focus on fishing.
[deckhand #1] There we go.
-[crew] Yeah! -[deckhand #1] [bleep] yeah.
That's what we need.
Nice.
[deckhand yells]
[deckhand #2] Awesome!
[Jake] It's hot fishing right now.
It's working too good.
It's a bold strategy taking up 20 more pots.
It's the right call, though.
Thank God.
These crab are defecting to Russia.
Wanna stop 'em?
So, we're heading north.
Full metal jacket.
He's bringing gear along with him, huh?
Get the crab on board now
before they go over the border, which they will.
Going to Russia, guys.
Stack 'em up and go into Russia.
Yeah, brother! We're going to Russia!
[crew cheers]
We'll see him here in a minute.
Is that him right there? It is.
Wow.
It looks like
the Arctic Sea is officially no longer in this fishery.
Tip your cap to the Coast Guard.
Nine people.
Against that cliff on those rocks.
I don't know how they got 'em off.
I gotta go pay my respects.
Oh, [bleep].
Head up to the bow.
All right, guys.
Hats off.
Respect for the Arctic Sea.
♪♪
[Johnathan] It's a lesson to everybody on the fleet,
everybody that's --
that's out here fishing.
You know, even the nicest, best boat on the fleet,
you can lose that boat just like that.
[Jake] I can't imagine what
those nine people are feeling right now.
[Sig] That was a living nightmare, I'm sure.
Hats off to the Coast Guard. I mean, what do you say?
Thank you. That's it.
[Keith] Bering Sea gives, Bering Sea takes.
Let's get back to work.
Good night. Farewell.
Rest in peace.
[boat honks]