21x14 - Brute Force Fishery

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] 650 miles northwest
of Dutch Harbor,

on the opilio crab grounds...

[ominous music playing]

[deckhand speaking]

...on the Aleutian Lady.

[Rick]
So it'll be a mile, one mile.

And then we'll start setting.

[deckhand]
Roger!

[Rick]
I went so far north,

right now, Russian waters is
off my starboard side,

just under two miles.

We were seeing a lot of good
sign in this depth curve,

so I took the gamble,

I packed it up, ran up North.

It'll be nice to get our pots
moved over here

and get some breathing room
instead of being limited

by thousands of pots
fighting to catch the same crab

I wanna catch.

Betting that remote
upper latitudes

house the crab he needs,
minus the competition,

Captain Rick Shelford gambles
on grounds near Putin's domain

to pay out his remaining


if his men and metal
can endure the cold.

[Rick]
The more I go into it,

the more spray
that gets on the bow,

the more ice
I'm gonna keep building.

and keep building and make more
work for the guys

and less sleep.

I just need these pots off
the boat as quick as we can,

and then we'll be good to go.

[Rick over radio]
Drop it right when I buzz it.

[deckhand] Roger!

[shouting]

[Rick] They're working for it
out there tonight.

This is...

not fun at all.

[deckhand] I got it.

Hurry up!
One over.

[alarm ringing]

[Rick] What the hell?

[alarm ringing]

[beeping]

OK.

Started doing
a 180-degree turn,

and we actually have
a little bit of a port list.

[deckhand]
Careful! Yeehaw!

See?
It goes over and kind of
hesitates a little bit.

I don't like that feeling.

Right now, it comes over,

it hesitates, hangs,
and then it slowly comes back.

[deckhand] One over!

All right, we're gonna have
a little gap here.

We're gonna turn and change
angles and go straight into it.

So you might get a little
bit of spray.

[deckhand] Roger!

I'm building way too much ice
on the port side right now.

That's how boats roll over.

So I got to correct
my course a little bit.

So I don't have as much spray
hitting me on the port bow.

I mean, I'd love to see
what's up there,

but it's what I got to do.

There we go.

All right, let her go.
Let her go.

[deckhand] One over.

[Rick] If we don't
stay on top of this,

it can end up causing us
real damage in the future.

[deep ship groan]

But first,
I got to get this set off.

Hopefully,
it'll all go smooth.



[Sig] You on there?

[Svein over radio]

It's like a first-class
delivery service.

[Svein] Yeah, that's it.

[laughing loudly]

[Svein speaking]

OK, he dropped it.

[crew] Roger!

...aboard the Northwestern.

[Sig speaking]

He's been around here
for a long time.

He's been up here for decades.

There it is.

One of our crab pumps went out,

and he had exactly
the shaft that we need.

[deckhand]
Whoa!

[Sig] Without that pump,
you've got nothing.

You've got no circulation
in your crab, and, uh...

-[deckhand] Got it?
-[deckhand #2 ] Yep.

We've got an offload date
coming up, real soon here.

I want to get these crab caught
so we can get back down

and start fishing our bairdi.

[indistinct chatter]

All right, they got it.
They got it in the rail.

We're good.

-[deckhand] Got it!
-[deckhand #2] All right!

[cheering]

[deckhand] Yeah!

We got it on board.
Thank you so much.

I owe you one.

[Svein over radio]

OK, Svein.
Thank you -- I'm out.

Now we can get
this pump back in order.

[deckhand over radio]
That's right.

We'll get to it and start
changing it out.

That part is not that easy
to install, trust me.

So it'll take a little work.

And, uh, we got to do it right.

[deckhand speaking]

We might be rolling around
a little bit here.

And, uh, I'll try to steady
the boat as best I can,

and we can see if we can
get this thing done.

[grunting]

If this doesn't work, then,
I mean, you're talking about

a whole trip to town and a lot
of grief and headache.

Last thing we need is
for our product to die on board.

[deckhand speaking]

[loud whirring]

[Sig over radio]
Yes, no?

[deckhand]
Yeah.

[Sig over radio]

Now we can get to work.

OK, she's coming up.

[deckhand] Whoo!

This string is going from west
to east, and a little deeper.

So the good news is,
we ran into some life here.

We wanna know
how far it stretches.

[deckhand] Whoo!

[Sig] Here we go.

[deckhand]
Oh, my God!

[deckhand #2]
What happened?

[sighs]

[deckhand]
Oh, God!

[deckhand #2]
It's not much.

[deckhand speaking]

Just a handful of crab.

This pot did not look good.

We'll see how
the next one does.

[deckhand] Oh, no!

Oh, man!

Why?

Oh, [bleep].

[deckhand] Oh, there you go.

-All right.
-Oh, it's crab!

[Sig] This one looks
a little better.

[deckhand]
Not bad.

Yeah, yeah.

[Sig over radio]

[deckhand speaking]

[Sig] That's a little better,
but we need more.

We're seeing a little sign
of life farther to the east,

but problem is,
this is 150 fathoms right here.

Maybe we should add shots
and go even deeper.

I mean, if there's gonna be
gear around,

and you've got one
shot too many.

You're talking about tangles,
snapping pots.

[Sig speaking]

[deckhand]
Roger. Roger!

OK, get ready to set.

[deckhand] Roger!

[deckhand] Do it, boys!

[Sig]
It's going to take a little work
to get those in the water.

[deckhand] Oh, there you go.

But at the end of the day,
if they're on good crab

and they're doing their job...

[deckhand]
Whenever you're ready.

...then that's what
has to happen.

[deckhand] Going over.

[Sig]
Clock's ticking for us.

[deckhand]
Give us some crab!
Give us some crab!



on the bairdi grounds...

[Jake]
That's a factory trawler.

Aboard the Titan Explorer...

Guys, there's a factory trawler

[deckhand] Oh, no [bleep]!

So the lights you see
out there, that's Keith.

And then, to the south of him,
you'll see that...

[Jake speaking]

And so are our crab.

[bleep]



an injured deckhand
in Dutch Harbor,

Captain Jake Anderson
arrives on grounds

crawling with crab.

And now, a new foe,
a 300-foot bottom trawler,

threatening to destroy his gear

with nets the size
of a football field.

Before I went in,
I called Keith,

hoping that he'd help
prospect these grounds,

trying to find
the pockets of crab.

But now you can see why we're...

partnered up.

Look at that big thing.

That's a huge boat.

That thing will swallow all
of our gear in, like, no time.

[Keith] I think if I stretch out
just a few minutes,

I'm gonna be fine.

[sighs]

[bleep]

Yeah.
[groaning]

[bleep]

My lower back's really
[bleep] up right now.

I'm going home
at the end of this trip.

I'm going to the doctor.

We're going to find out just
how bad this back is.

[phone vibrates]

Hey, Jake, how you doing?

[Jake over phone]

I came back to quite a party.

[Keith over phone]

These guys are coming down
from the north.

Now we got three boats.

And that means he could be
hauling the whole damn fleet

in on us.

[Keith over phone]

I've got a few ideas,
but mine will probably

land us in jail real quick.

If we set some gear tight,

just right below
where he's working,

[Keith over phone]

'Cause they can't afford to be
fixing nets all day long.

It's a smart play.

All right, there's no more
hiding in town now.

All right, OK.

[Keith over phone]

[Jake] OK, later.

It's going to rain down
trawlers here pretty quick.

But none of us
are gonna back down.

I'll guarantee it.

[Keith] I don't want to lose
any more gear this year, but...

if these bottom trawlers
want a w*r,

we'll give them a w*r.


of Dutch Harbor...

[Keith]
You got me on this one, Jake.

[Jake over radio]

...on the bairdi grounds.

[Keith]
This is what we need to do.

Basically,
we're setting a minefield.

We're setting
a cluster minefield, OK?

We have to get
our gear super tight,

straight east and west.

[Keith over radio]

[Jake] Uh...

[Keith over radio]

But if he's stupid enough
to come through this area

and sucks up our little
cluster bombs in his net...

[Keith over radio]

Roger.

[Keith over radio]

...at this, because you and Sig
set me down all the time.

[laughs]

[Keith]
Let's get this show on the road.

You guys ready to cluster b*mb
these trawlers?

[deckhand] Roger!

...go of the first one.

[beeping]

[indistinct chatter]

[deckhand] Go ahead.

[bleep] you, trawler.

[bleep] you.

Yeah!

[Keith over radio]

We've got to get the gear
in here as tight as possible.

[deckhand] Roger, going over.

-[laughter]
-[deckhand] Yeah!

All right.

There goes the first cluster.

[Keith]
I'll tell you what, right now,

I am not backing down
to this guy.



on the opilio grounds...

I can feel the ice on my face,
like on my upper lip.

...aboard the Aleutian Lady.

[Rick] Today is really cold.

I mean, it is a lot colder
than it was yesterday.

I put this gear on fresh bottom
that I'm not fighting

too many other pots.

Right now, this one's going
right up and down

the Russian border.

I mean, there's a lot
of competition

to try to catch these crabs.

I got really high hopes
for what we got going on.

But you got a lot riding on
this thing.

And if I made a mistake,
a lot of fuel,

a lot of money we burned,

it's gonna set us back
thousands of dollars.

All right, guys, here we go.
First pot coming up.

Let's rock and roll.

[suspenseful music playing]

Oh, come on, baby.

Get us some good numbers.

Oh, you're pretty looking.

-Yeehaw!
-[deckhand] There it is!

[crew cheering]

[deckhand] Oh, man.

[indistinct cheering]

Yes!

[cheering continues]

There's a [bleep] ton of crab
on the table.

[deckhand speaking]

[deckhand speaking]

[sighs]
Oh, [bleep]!

[deckhand speaking]

We got crab in our pots.

There's nobody else around,
but down on the bottom

of the ocean,
it's 38 degrees Fahrenheit.

Up on our deck right now,
it's like negative 25.

These crab have water in them.
They live in water.

So all that water
on the outside

freezes their gills,
and it kills them.

With full pots
breaching his rail,

and not another boat
in sight...

So everybody focus on getting
crab in the tank.

[Rick]
Once you guys start seeing
crab freeze up, holler up.

...Captain Rick's mission goes
from hunting to saving

each $8 opilio crab.

[deckhand speaking]

Got a stopwatch going.

Big, beautiful crab,
a lot of them.

Hope and pray we can get
through all these crab

before they start freezing.

[deckhand speaking]

[Rick]
Two minutes and 20 seconds.

So two minutes and 20 seconds
from the time that pot lifted

out of the water, till the time
these crab are pretty much

gone and dead.

And they're not even partway
sorted through the table.

We're done, done.

[deckhand speaking]

It is so dang cold outside.

We can't just sit and wait
for four or five days.

[bleep]

Hey, can you have
Nico and Noah come up here?

Roger, thanks.

All right.

So doing it normally is
not gonna work.

Crab are gonna freeze.
They're gonna die.

So it's going old school.

We take the table, put it up
on top, and we go out of totes.

Power sorting, going through it
as quick as we can.

Deck hose is going on them.

That way, they're getting
a steady flow.

I mean, I'm pretty --

I feel really confident

those crab are gonna last
a lot longer.

I think we can give it a shot.

All right, guys, thank you.

[whirring]

All right, guys,
first pot coming up.

All right, pot in the block.

Let's see what we get.

-[deckhand] Yeah, boy!
-[deckhand #2] Hell yeah!

[deckhand] Knock it off.

[deckhand #2] That's good!

Come on, guys,
let's bust a move.

Let's go, let's go!

[deckhand] Roger!

Hey!

[Rick] All right, let's do it.
Let's do it.

[deckhand] Watch out.

[Rick] Right now,
every second counts.

Every minute matters.

-[deckhand] Back, back, back.
-[deckhand #2] Oh, look at these
bad boys.

On the Aleutian Lady...

-[deckhand] Back, back, back.
-[deckhand #2] Oh, look at these
bad boys.

[Rick]
Hurry up, we gotta go.

These [bleep] crab are freezing.

We're trying to keep
the crab alive.

We've had everybody sorting
as soon as the pod is dumped.

We get a lot of crab to sort
in a real quick manner.

[deckhand speaking]

[Rick] Is it gonna work?
We're gonna find out.

[indistinct chatter]

[Rick over radio] You guys are
doing a pretty damn good job

of getting them over quick.

[Noah speaking]

[deckhand speaking]

Six-one-five.
Whoo-hoo.

That's our first 600 in a while.

Hell, yeah.

Nice work, guys.

[cheering]

[deckhand] Yeah.

[Rick] Got to keep hustling.
Got to keep moving.

If we can keep doing this,

I mean, we'll get full here
pretty quick.

[deckhand] Ah.

I wanna be heading to Dutch.

Can't afford to have dead loss,
because that's huge money.

We're gonna find out.



[Sig] Oh, man.

Watch the rail for a second.

[deckhand] Help!

[deckhand #2] Where's Lawrence?

[deckhand] Hold on!

[deckhand #2] Hold on!

[Sig] I saw that, Lawrence.
Be careful.

I'm watching you.

Aboard the Northwestern...

[Sig]
Hard season, pretty eventful.

Crab pump broke down,
so we were pretty worried

about our crab there.

This weather's just
getting worse.

But we've got an offload
coming up.

The gear we have out here is
to the east, so we'll see.

We took a gamble on this.

Hopefully it pays off.

[deckhand] Whoo!

Hang on.

Watch the rail.

Oh, come on.

Easy on the roll, girl.

OK, first pot coming up.

[deckhand] There it is!

Whoo!

Come on, baby.
Come to papa.

Come on, crabs.
Come on, crabs.

[shouting indistinctly]

[deckhand] Here we go.

[tense music playing]

Hoping for something good, man.

[Sig] Come on.

[deckhand] Oh!

[cheering]

That looks good.

There's a nice little
ball of crab in there.

[deckhand] That'll work.

See what they get
on the count here.

[deckhand] Oh, yeah!
That's a lot of crab!

[deckhand #2] Oh, big.



Oh, baby, watch out!

We'll see how
the next one does.

OK.

Here we go.

[alarms ringing]

I got nothing.

[Sig speaking]

[deckhand] Oh, no.

Go, go, go, go, go!
Yeah!

Oh, boy.

[alarm ringing]

Oh, watch the rail.

[Clark] Ah!

Drifting around like this is
not the best thing.

Nothing we can do.

I mean, I got nothing, you know.

[bleep]

[Clark]
We just lost fuel pressure.

It's gotta be the filters
on the main.

[Clark speaking]

[Sid groans]

The waves that are coming,
it just shakes the whole boat.

It's like thunder.

Ah!

[deckhand] Whoo!

[Sid groans]

[Sig] To find out what
the hell's going on here.

What does he think?

[Clark speaking]

Yeah.

All right.

So...

oh, man!

Oh!

On the Northwestern.

[Sig]
What does he think?

[Clark speaking]

Yeah.

All right.

So...

oh, man!

Oh!

Ah!

Are we good?
Can I go now, please?

[Clark speaking]

[Sig] Yeah.

Ah, rolling around
like a...

I hate that.

I just hate sitting around
being helpless.

[groans]

Come on.

[Clark speaking]

[engine revving]

There it is.

He got her going.

What the hell was it?

[Clark]
It must be bad fuel.

[Sig] All right,
we'll keep an eye on it.

-[Clark] Yeah.
-OK, thank you.

Yep.

[radio beeps]

[Sig] All right, guys.

Coming up.

Well, let's go get him.

[deckhands speaking]

[Sig] It's nice to have
some power back, man.

It's nice when
you're a control freak.

-[laughing]
[deckhand] Whoo!

[Sig] Hopefully that holds.
I mean, if it doesn't,

we're walking on thin ice here.

I mean, we need to keep going.

Just cross our fingers
and finish up this trip.

[deckhand]
Moment of truth.

We got to get in
for that offload.

[cheering]

There we go.

[cheering]

[laughs]

What does that look like?

[deckhands] 350, 350!

Yeah, that's what
we're looking for.

Doesn't take long to stuff
a tank with those crabs.

We're back!

Whoo!

We're at them!

[Sig speaking]

-[cheering]
-[deckhand] Yeah, baby!

Let's go!

[Sig] Fishing with fuel issues,
I don't know, it is risky.

Hopefully it pays off.

We'll see.
You never know.



[Jake] Hey, Keith.

I see a trawler coming in.

[Keith speaking]

We just need this sucker
to bite once

and try and come through
this cluster set

to realize real quickly

that it is a losing proposition
for him.

[Jake speaking]

Standing by.

[Keith speaking]

...on the bairdi grounds.

All around us are trawlers.

Keith and I set
cluster bombs of gear.

So the trawler's gonna run
into the blank pots that

we set out for him.
Not gear that's got crab in it.

Sometimes, you have to resort
to guerrilla warfare.

See, there they are right there.

they're coming through
the northeast section

of the cluster b*mb.

Come on.

That first trawler is still
coming straight at us.

I mean, he's gonna be
right into this cluster

any minute now.

It's close.
It's real close with this one.

He's gonna hit it.

Holy [bleep], dude.

[Keith] Trying to be healthy.

My doctor sent me
to a nutritionist.

She said I really need
to drop some weight.

So I've been trying to stay off
the crabber diet,

which is not good.

So I've got some -- agh!

I don't know, some special
formula breakfast food

I've got here.

It's like hemp seed,
flax seeds,

high in fiber.

I forget what all it is
I put in this,

but it's all natural

and good to keep
your system moving

and muesli something

or whatever it is.

[chuckles]

You just don't wanna look at it.
You just gotta.

This big stack of pancakes
with some bacon and maple syrup

and butter would be
kind of nice right now.

On the bairdi grounds.

Looks like he's pretty close
to one of the clusters.

He's gonna hit it.

Holy [bleep], dude.

No, [bleep].
He didn't -- [bleep].

He didn't hit it.

[Keith] Damn it.

He just missed the end
of our gear there.

He's into the rest
of our gear now.

We're [bleep].

Oh, [bleep].

Here comes another one,
maybe second time's a charm.

He's not slowing down.

Dude, he hit it.

Just went right through
one of the clusters.

Now he's in our gear
for sure now.

I don't think they care.

Wait!
Well, oh, yeah.

Now I'm talking!

That second guy just
pulled back.

And now the first guy's slowing
down to a crawl as well.

[affirmative grunts]

Moron.

[Keith speaking]

They're turning around.
We got them.

[exhales]
Well done, Jake.

[Jake speaking]

Keep an eye out.

[Keith speaking]

[Jake speaking]

Good job.

[cheering]

Hopefully we can just fish
and not be interrupted.

We'll find out.

Ha!

Good job, guys.

[Keith speaking]

We might have
a pot missing, but...

[Keith speaking]

Hurry, get [bleep].

[Keith] We're heading to town,

and we'll get
myself into the clinic.

We'll find out
how banged up we are.

[deckhand] Here it comes.

[Sig]
The engine's still running.

It's holding.

One pot left.

All right, guys, last pot.

-[cheering]
-[deckhand] Let's go!

Let's get some friends.

Come to papa.

Whoo!

[deckhand #2] They're clean.

[Sig] Nice!

[deckhand] Whoo!

That's what I'm talking about.

Looking good!

I think we're sitting pretty
here with this pot.

Clean crab goes right
down the tank.



There we go.
We're turning for Dutch.

Hopefully it holds.

I feel like we're gonna have
to limp in, you know?

We've got to be real careful.

[Sig speaking]

Any better? Still hurt?

[Clark] Yes.

[Sig] I'm hopeful
that Clark is fine.

He got hit pretty good,
you know,

so we wanna get him
in town as well,

get him fixed up.

And then we'll get ready
for our bairdi season.

[Rick] So, Nico, why'd you put
so many dead crab in the tank?

[Nico speaking]

Look at that.
It's a lot of dead loss.

I mean, that's almost 12 grand
out of our pockets.

[Nico] That's a lot of money.

So it sucks.

But it could've been
a lot worse.

So let's get that thing popped,
and we'll go from there.

Roger that.

[Rick] I took the gamble,
ran up north.

Now we just got to make it up
and try to recover

some of this loss.

'Cause we're running out
of time.

We got rid of the trawler.
They moved away from our gear.

[deckhand] Hell yes!

Yeah!

That's what I'm talking about!

[Jake over radio]
That is an awesome box.

[deckhand speaking]

Good job, guys, 95?

I got to keep my foot
on the gas.

I got a lot of bairdi to catch.

And I'm running out
of time, quick.

We're going into the dock here.

Coming into
beautiful Dutch Harbor

with our first western
bairdi trip behind us.

[Keith] I'm so happy when
I'm not getting my a*s kicked

in this [bleep] wheelhouse, man.

[Monte speaking]

[Keith]
I'm going to the doctor.

We're going to find out just
how bad this back is.

When he gets all healed up,
we'll come back

and get them.

We've got to go fishing.

We've got a ton of crab
to catch.

This is a lot to do alone.