About this season
Forty-foot waves, 700 pound crab pots, freezing temperatures and your mortality staring you in the face…it's all in a day's work for these modern day prospectors. During each episode we will watch crews race to meet their quota and make it home safely.
Episodes (16)
1. The Gamble
9.0Aired 10 April 2012 • 60 min
A slashed crab quota has captains reeling before the boats hit the water. With the fleet set to fight over half the catch, each skipper is forced to decide: roll the dice on the depleted Red grounds or risk it all to hunt for the elusive Blue crab.
2. Turf War
9.0Aired 17 April 2012 • 60 min
With the fleet split, a tale of two fisheries emerges. On the Blue grounds, a captains' bet has the boats jockeying for position. On the Red grounds, a returning veteran quickly proves his worth, while another boat copes with a fallen deckhand.
3. Weak Links
9.0Aired 24 April 2012 • 60 min
As the fleet grinds through injuries and mental mistakes, the Bering Sea exposes soft spots and weak links in each crew. While the skippers wonder which deckhands have the right stuff, the Time Bandit says goodbye to a crewmate who never made it back.
4. The Hook
9.0Aired 1 May 2012 • 60 min
Halfway through the King crab gauntlet, the beaten-down crews must dig deep to get over the midseason hump. As the crab counts dwindle and the weak fall by the wayside, the skippers give their youngest deckhands a choice: step up or step off.
5. Alien Abduction
9.0Aired 8 May 2012 • 60 min
Past the halfway point of the King Crab season, man and machine alike show signs of wear under the brutal hand of the Bering Sea. While repairs can be made to the equipment, the fishermen must dig deep to soldier on in a place where nature rules.
6. Vital Signs
9.0Aired 15 May 2012 • 60 min
As king crab season nears the finish line, the crew of The Wizard faces a life or death situation as a deckhand collapses and struggles to hold on. Catching crab suddenly becomes secondary to a fight for survival on the harsh Bering Sea.
7. I Don't Wanna Die
9.0Aired 22 May 2012 • 60 min
In a scramble to help their collapsed greenhorn, the Wizard crew calls in a Coast Guard helicopter. For the rest of the fleet, it's a race to haul crab before a hurricane hits, and the last boat fishing waits too long to leave the grounds.
8. The Aftermath
9.0Aired 29 May 2012
In the aftermath of an arctic hurricane, the fleet struggles to reach the finish line of a brutal king crab season. Poor fishing and quarreling crews make this final push a painful one for every man on the Bering Sea.
9. Nowhere to Go But Down
9.0Aired 5 June 2012
It's winter in Dutch Harbor and the fleet prepares to hunt Opilio crab. The season looks promising with the quota up and the price high, but tensions rise before the lines are thrown as one deckhand quits, two brothers fight and one goes overboard.
10. Rise and Fall
6.0Aired 12 June 2012
With unrelenting northerly winds bearing down on the fleet, every skipper steels himself for battle with the descending polar ice pack. And as temperatures drop on the grounds, tempers on deck flare up.
11. No Exit
9.0Aired 19 June 2012 • 60 min
Across the fleet, captains battle the descending polar ice pack to save their pots, and it's a losing war. The Northwestern and Wizard struggle to escape St. Paul harbor, while the rest of the fleet scrambles to keep their opilio season alive.
12. Collision Course
9.0Aired 26 June 2012 • 60 min
The polar ice pack invades the opilio crab grounds, forcing the captains to make a decision: grab their gear and run, or keep fishing and fight the floes. Two deckhands fall victim to an ice assault; a captain's troubles are compounded by a call home.
13. Landlocked
9.0Aired 3 July 2012 • 50 min
The ice pack has a choke hold on the Bering Sea opilio grounds. Nearly iced up, captains across the fleet must make the call to stay or go. Some run from the ice, and others stay to battle the elements for the hope of a record-breaking payday.
14. Fearless Leaders
9.0Aired 10 July 2012 • 60 min
One of the worst icing events in history recedes making it possible for some of the boats to return. One boat suffers a total blackout while navigating an iceberg minefield, Elliott gets a rude awakening and a greenhorn learns a deadly lesson.
15. Release the Beast
9.0Aired 17 July 2012 • 60 min
Two brothers find themselves in the same dire situation that sunk their father's boat. After a midseason hiatus, the fleet returns to the Bearing Sea, but the ice is back and worse than before. Now the skippers could get pushed past their breaking points.
16. The Bitter, Bloody End
9.0Aired 24 July 2012
In this special two-hour close to a merciless opilio season, a veteran deckhand pays for a mistake in flesh. Then in the final hours some men rise and some men fall, but not everyone will make it home.