Deadliest Catch Captain Jake Anderson had a big decision to make after another setback on the Bering Sea.
Amid an already-rough season of the Discovery reality series, the Saga has been hit especially hard by the weather, including rogue waves reaching up to 40 feet. In Tuesday’s all-new episode, Anderson had to figure out a way to make this season count amid the tough weather and try to salvage a scramble of a season.
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“Facing crew-crushing waves once again, Jake stares down the barrel of yet another shutdown,” narrator Mike Rowe said of the dire situation the captain was facing.
“She’s howling,” Anderson said of the sea as the ship was shown going at a steep angle amid the massive waves. “This is the roughest weather I’ve seen this season right now.”
It was clear that the weather was affecting the crab pull as well, with the crew pulling up a first pot of only 65 crabs. But despite the conditions, Anderson was weighing the danger against his looming crab quota.
“At some point, we are going to have to fish,” he said thoughtfully. “Can’t just keep taking days off because the bags are down and the waves are too big. I’ll never go home.”
Deck boss Sean Dunlop agreed with the tough call, saying, “It’s dangerous but everybody knows that when they signed that paper.”
Thinking out loud about how to balance safety and success, Anderson said, “I don’t know how long we’re going to do this today, but we’re just going to fight back. I’ve got like 60, 70 miles spread on the gear… 200 pots … I haven’t been through all of this … this is our most shallow stuff, let’s see.”
But it’s not clear if the strategy will pay off, as Anderson’s crew continued to pull up near-empty pots.
“It’s going to be a long string,” he said, resigned.
Anderson opened up about this tough season in an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com prior to this season premiere.
“Nobody goes out to a fast food chain when there’s a hurricane blowing, and that’s how it is for the crab,” Anderson said. “It made bad weather worse; it made crab fishing difficult; it made even fishing on the easiest of days very, very dangerous. And everybody will see that on this upcoming season.”
We see what he means now!
Deadliest Catch airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.
Photo credit: Discovery
