NARRATOR: 529 miles Northwest of Dutch Harbor--
on the Cornelia Marie.
JOSH HARRIS: They caught some canary.
So hopefully before anything else shuts down,
we can get over crab off the boat.
Because we get a boatload of crab
on, but nowhere to deliver it.
All the crab die.
We don't know what's going to happen.
Nobody knows.
CREW: Oh yeah.
CASEY MCMANUS: We have more quota this year
than we've ever had before.
By a long shot, by almost doubled.
And now we could be told that we can't deliver it.
NARRATOR: 500 miles from the fishing grounds in Akutan,
Alaska, one of the four major opilio crab canaries
suspends its operations after a surge in COVID 19 cases.
If the Bering sea's remaining processing plants follow suit,
captains Josh Harris and Casey McManus
won't be able to offload their time sensitive cargo,
saddling them with hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
CASEY MCMANUS: But we're on good fish,
and what happens if we come back out
and then we got nothing at all in the pot?
It's a very real possibility.
JOSH HARRIS: We're right on that cusp of being able to end this.
Just going to keep fishing, man.
CREW: Yeah, baby.
CASEY MCMANUS: I just want to get as much crab as we can
right now because when we go in and deliver,
it's going to take a while.
We're kind of at their mercy.
CREW: [CHEERING]
Decisions, decisions.
JOSH HARRIS: We stay on fishing like this,
we'll have this done by tomorrow.
If this puppy offloaded.
CASEY MCMANUS: Hey, there.
Can you go ahead and flood the front tanks.
We're going to have to open all the valves, OK?
See how many pounds we can get aboard this big old girl.
NARRATOR: The skippers call, stay on the hunt
to fill their tanks, betting that their numbers
and the remaining canneries stay healthy.
MATT: Roger, Roger.
Good day for it.
JOSH HARRIS: Or feed the beast.
It's a hungry one.
And hopefully the plant stays open, offload the crab.
REPORTER (ON RADIO): Another plant
in Alaska shut down this week after a cluster
of positive cases, resulting in the two largest processing
plants shutting down all essential work
as they began a massive testing procedure for employees.
SIG: Now, there's two of them processing plants
that have had cases of COVID and they've
shut them down completely.
And you know, if we don't have a plant to deliver to, then--
then we're putting crab on and we got no place to go.
CREW: Second cannery shut down.
JOSH HARRIS: I don't know.
I don't know what's-- what's going on.
All I know is that you filled this boat.
That's what I do now.
And we don't fill this boat that we're in a heap of trouble.
CASEY MCMANUS: Sounds like a generator, a generator died,
it sounds like.
CREW: We've got no water coming up.
It just stopped.
CASEY MCMANUS: This is [BLEEP] up.
If we have no power, we got no pump run.
We got on pump run and the crab die.
JOSH HARRIS: Really, it would be devastating.
CASEY MCMANUS: No water on those crab
are good for about 10 minutes.
We got to keep water running through there,
get it through their gills.
If you don't have that, they die.
We're in deep trouble.
JOSH HARRIS: It happens real fast.
Real fast.
CREW: It's the pump!
CASEY MCMANUS: Come on, what the hell's taking so long.
I thought 2021 was supposed to be better.
What's going on?
TAYLOR: The John Deere.
I bled everything twice and I turned it over,
and it won't fire up.
CASEY MCMANUS: It won't fire up at all?
[BLEEP]
OK, I think the fuel pump is the primary problem.
And I don't think-- we don't have another low pressure
fuel pump, do we, Tay?
TAYLOR: Negative.
So we don't have a backup fuel pump
for it, which means the biggest of our generators
is out of line.
So we're going to drop down to our second generator,
run the dog piss out of it, and finish [BLEEP] the job.
TAYLOR: OK.
JOSH HARRIS: And the hits just keep on coming.
CASEY MCMANUS: If that one goes out,
spread your legs, about shoulder width
apart, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye
because I'm getting fired.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CREW: Captain, it's good.
OK, good.
Thank you.
It's getting [BLEEP] out of me.
This is crazy.
CASEY MCMANUS: We got another backup generator online right
now, so that's fine.
We got power right now, we got water going to the crab.
These are going right here.
I'll tell you that much right now.
CASEY MCMANUS: It's too risky.
NARRATOR: Down to a single generator keeping
their crab pumps operational.
All right, guys, start setting them over.
NARRATOR: The skipper's set where they stand, rather
than risk going any farther North,
away from the safety of Port.
JOSH HARRIS: Yeah, it's time to start getting
back into fishing mode, you know,
and get ready to fill this boat.
CASEY MCMANUS: In case they have an outbreak,
we want to get as much delivered to St. Paul
as we possibly can for this season,
keep us afloat to fish another year.
CREW: Whoa!
Come on.
I pray.
So we see a four year veteran.
We'll see.
CREW: Here we go.
Come on, crabs!
Woo-hoo!
OK, OK, that's right.
We got something.
JOSH HARRIS: Did you get the number?
190.
It's an empire.
It's only going to get better from here.
CREW: [CHEERING]
CASEY MCMANUS: Oh yeah!
Keep this train rolling.
JOSH HARRIS: Stellar.
CASEY MCMANUS: Look at that.
There we go, boy.
CREW: Woo!
Let's go!
[CHEERING]
JOSH HARRIS: Bring on the crabbies.
CASEY MCMANUS: There you go.
JOSH HARRIS: That's dandy.
590, you smoking it.
This top up the thing.
You're right to the finish line.
NARRATOR: Rather than go back on the hunt,
risking dead loss in the tank.
JOSH HARRIS: Nice job.
Way to bust your ass today, guys.
NARRATOR: The skipper's hightail it to the still
open processor at St. Paul.
JOSH HARRIS: Last mark coming out.
I think we're going to be OK.
CASEY MCMANUS: Pray that we caught enough.
JOSH HARRIS: Look at these, guys.
These crabs, look how full this tank is, beautiful.
Six full tanks offload today.
JOSH HARRIS: Look at the size of this guy.
I hope, the size of my head down here.
This is our biggest offload we've ever had as being
owners of this boat together.
And right now, we really need this.
Your old man would be proud.
Didn't make it.
KRISTJAN: He's probably been banging around.
Yeah, we had a little bit of dead loss there.
Why don't we tell you hit the bottom.
KRISTJAN: Casey, Josh, we got the totals.
3871.
Oh man, that's a lot of dead loss.
It's a lot of money.
We're quite a bit under.
NARRATOR: Due to violent weather,
Josh and Casey suffered thousands of dollars
of unexpected death loss.
I'm [BLEEP] pissed.
We got to head back up North.
No breaks.
CASEY MCMANUS: OK, boys, let's throw the lines.
CREW: Roger, Roger.