On tonight’s Deadliest Catch on Discovery, it’s all about the insane weather and roiling high seas that the captains of the fleet have to worry about. The wear on the boats, the tear on the men and the potential for major accidents and injuries.
Opelio season is in the winter and Northwestern captain Sig Hansen is reflective in the clip opener. As it progresses, he becomes visibly upset as someone ends up with a major injury. But who was hurt and what happened? So many things can go wrong on a boat pitching up and down in a relentless winter sea.
There are several crab seasons for the core cast of Deadliest Catch, King crab, bairdi crab and opelio crab. The latter is fished late in the season, as the most lucrative seasons are fall and winter and can last over four weeks. In the Bering Sea, the most active months are October and January.
Reporter Laine Welch wrote an optimistic news item about the season and claimed there was an uptick in hires and more money for the fisherman for their hauls.
“The crab season opens in mid-October for red king crab, Tanners and snow crab (opilio),” the Kodiak Daily Mirror reports. “While fishing goes fast for red kings in order to fill orders for year-end markets in Japan, the fleet typically drops pots for the other species in January.
In the cabin and looking extremely pensive as he observes the weather, Sig says, “It’s already winter and because of that, the weather looks like it is going to go crazy here. We all already seeing much colder temperatures, tides are running hard, wind’s just building. I’ve never seen a beginning like this. Ever.”
The music overlays into a fade of scene as we suddenly find ourselves hearing and seeing captain Jake Anderson of The Saga reflect a bit too. He says, “So this will be a test to see how my new guys hold up.”
Then we swap over to the largest boat in the fleet, The Wizard, whose captain at large is Monty Colburn.
“When my brother is not here I have to put an additional body on the boat,” Colburn says. “This year it’s going to be my son Gregory.” (Captain Keith Colburn alerted us to this in his exclusive interview with M&C earlier this season)
The rest of the clip builds in drama and sets the tone for the rest of the Deadliest Catch season where it is guaranteed that someone will be really hurt and there will be territorial wars and grudge matches galore as the captains race to get this tasty variety of snow crab in the holds and ready for market.
We wonder how Monty Colburn will do sitting in for brother Keith too, it remains to be seen.
Don’t this episode tonight and check out the sneak peek below.
Deadliest Catch airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on Discovery.