S14.Special. Bering Sea Triangle 2018.07.03

[thewhiteowl]

Experts and crabbers expire the small corner of the Bering Sea where boats have simply vanished, without even a distress call

[AAEBoiler]

This was an interesting filler episode. While I like the graphics of how certain conditions (slack tank, rogue wave, etc.) can cause a boat to capsize it's just really creepy and disconcerting for the show to use exact models of the beloved boats sinking or crashing on the rocks. Maybe it's just me.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

While the risks ar many and real, I am done with these celebtains self-serving lectures.  At some point, they each put undue stresses and took bad chances with their crews' well being.   Spare me their righteous claiming of valor and courage.

I will say that the footage of that F/V getting broadsided was outrageously scary, and awesome.  Why was it never mentioned that CREW WERE ON DECK IN THOSE SEAS moments before that hit?!!!!!  Not a hint of opprobrium for that captain.  

Why is that triangle the location of the most wrecks?  Maybe because it is by FAR, the most heavily trafficked part of the Bering Sea?  Ask any actuary what the most dangerous place for a car accident is and they will tell you it is the first 1/2 mile nearest your residence.  Why?  Because it is the territory you most often travel.   The most deaths?  Domestic bathrooms.  Location./  Location.  Location.  I am NOT saying that area is a veritable walk in the verdant park.  It has its moments, for sure.  Rogue wave generation?  Why didn't we hear numbers from that oceanographer?

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, Lonesome Rhodes said:

I will say that the footage of that F/V getting broadsided was outrageously scary, and awesome.  Why was it never mentioned that CREW WERE ON DECK IN THOSE SEAS moments before that hit?!!!!!  Not a hint of opprobrium for that captain.  

If you're talking about the Aleutian Ballad, this video  from Discovery Channel indicates that the wave hit at 3:00 AM, and that the crew was below deck because of the weather.

I've done the tour out of Ketchikan twice on the Aleutian Ballad.  Fascinating, informative, and very well done.  I've met one crew member and one captain that were on Deadliest Catch on that tour.  The real fishermen telling their stories made you realize just how dangerous their jobs are.  

[Lonesome Rhodes]

13 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

If you're talking about the Aleutian Ballad, this video  from Discovery Channel indicates that the wave hit at 3:00 AM, and that the crew was below deck because of the weather.

Watch as the captain is remarking at how tough the weather is.  Observe in the lower left of the frame a crew  member on deck.  The seas were very rough and the visibility was next to nothing.  Point being, it mattered not that the rogue wave hit at a later moment, which I acknowledged.  It is that the seas were demonstrably that rough and a rogue wave was in play at any time, yet crew were on deck.

[brgjoe]

I knew this would be a filler type episode.  But I did enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would for a filler type of episode. 

I did learn some things.   Had no idea that Triangle there existed.  I would have thought it would have been mentioned a lot more before now(?)  And I didn't know about those currents that could seemingly come from opposite directions to make navigating through it so tough. 

Drama aside, those crews that go out there are legit tough guys.  I know I couldn't do their job.  They (along with the Coast Guard who also are out there in the worst conditions) earn my ultimate respect for what they do.  They earn every penny out there.

[smores]

I was really annoyed with the way they were hyping up how dangerous the ice that Jr had on the boat was and how things could have gone bad at ANY moment.  It’s not so much that I don't think it couldn't have, I DO know it could, it's more that, well, how the fuck did he let that much ice build up in the first place?  Every other boat would have been ditching pots like crazy to get rid of them before they built up that much ice that quickly.  They also wouldn't have waited until they had that much ice built up before they started trying to remove it.  

I feel the same each time I see the footage of the Wizard catastrophe when the crew was up on the stack.  They shouldn't have been up there in that weather in the first place, but Keith didn't plan ahead, and so they were in danger.  It's always played off like the sun was shining bright, then the next minute there was ice, bad weather, and they had to climb the stack and BOOM! Rogue wave! But, that wasn't really the case.  And after it happened, Keith was shaken, but, he still has them go out in weather other captains pull their crews in.