The 2008 King crab fleet faces huge stakes - before boats even cast off. Skippers Keith and Phil could be sidelined by life threatening illnesses and all the boats are in debt from summer repairs. A skipper is pressured to take a potentially fatal risk.

A vicious storm kicks up and a Mayday goes out. The Skippers are glued to their radios -- waiting to hear the fate of 11 brother fishermen in distress...

The fleet is still dialing into the crab, and already a typhoon has taken its toll. A boat has sunk - and bone-chilling accounts of the fate of its men relay around the fleet.

It¹s week four of King Crab Season. Seven souls have perished, but the fishermen soldier on, in the hunt for crab. Grueling hours and vicious hazing test the Greenhorns -- and some start to crack.

Crab pots still come up empty and the skippers are out of ideas. Low bait and long grinds take our crews to dark places -- the smallest infractions from a Greenhorn or fellow Deckhand cause tempers and even violence to flare.

A new deadline is set: an upcoming drop in the price of king crab has the skippers rushing to finish their season. But crew battles and a fierce arctic storm block the way.

The King Crab Season is down to the wire and skippers are desperate to top off their quotas. It's looking bleak as crews pick through bone-yards of fished out grounds. Some boats dig deep for an end of season sprint, --other boats just scrape by.

The 2008 King crab season is over with and It's the start of the 2009 Opilio Crab Season. Anything the Bering Sea held back during King Season is now being paid out in spades. The skippers have their eyes on the oncoming ice pack -- but it's a lethal, 40-foot rogue wave that's on the hunt.

It's week three of the Opilio Crab Season. Long hours and miserable conditions already have the crabbers turning on each other. Boat-crushing ice stands between one skipper and the safety of harbor.

After weeks battling freezing spray, forty foot waves, and sub-zero temperatures, skippers have begun plugging their boats with Opilio crab. As they race to St. Paul harbor for offload, the 250,000 square mile arctic ice pack stands in their way.

Halfway through the season, each skipper faces his own personal form of hell. Frozen crab, frozen gear, and a frozen harbor chill the hearts of the most callous of fishermen. On the Northwestern, Sig battles a fierce cigarette addiction-and a fierce storm

When the fleet gets word of great fishing by the ice pack, the chase is on to the ends of the earth! Two egos collide, when Keith and Phil fight over fishing turf. Sick of hauling mangled, barnacle-ridden crab down south, Captain Harry on the Incentive faces his fears and climbs north to frozen waters. While aboard the Northwestern, Sig pushes his crew and himself to the edge of insanity with a sleepless, 38 hour grind. Hellacious hours and missing pots-a journey to the far north will push these men over the edge.

Weeks into the Opilio Season, the fleet is bone tired and desperate for home. As delirium sets in, deadly, rib-crunching mistakes are made. But for one fisherman, a tragedy on land spells gut-wrenching, heartbreak at sea.

The Opilio season is almost over, but an arctic storm front has the skippers on edge. The boats race to plug their tanks with crab and get back to port unscathed. On the first boat to finish, a tight knit crew fractures.

It's the final 24 hours of the 2009 Opilio crab season. A savage arctic storm causes multiple vessels to send out maydays. The Coast Guard is in a race against the clock to save four men before their boat is pounded into splinters against jagged rocks.