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00:00She's a huge ship with her sights set on the big catch.
00:05This is Northern Eagle, the most advanced ship working in the Alaska fishery.
00:12She's heading out into the unforgiving Bering Sea in high season,
00:16when the chance of reward is greatest.
00:19Ah, looks like a big one.
00:21And the risk of failure is most devastating.
00:24Yes, the pressure is on.
00:28Days like this, I wish I was anything, anything but a fisherman.
00:32On the most important fishing trip of their entire season,
00:36will Northern Eagle get the big catch or come back empty-handed?
00:47Northern Eagle is a floating factory with a production line that rivals any on land.
00:54Up to 54,000 fish per hour can be caught, cleaned and processed on board.
01:02104 meters long and 15 meters wide,
01:06Northern Eagle is the most modern trawler in North America.
01:11On the trawl deck, her net can haul in up to 180 tons of fish.
01:18Her on-board processing plant takes up two-thirds of the space below deck
01:23and can fillet and freeze up to 160 tons of fish a day.
01:28And she fishes one of the most resilient and best managed fish stocks on the planet.
01:34Alaska Pollock.
01:36They can reproduce faster than most other fish species.
01:40And only about 14% of the total estimated amount of Pollock in the Bering Sea
01:45is allowed to be caught each year.
01:49Jens Jonsson is Northern Eagle's captain.
01:52Let's get ready to start.
02:00Every one of the ship's 140-person crew gets paid according to the value of the catch,
02:06so they all have a vested interest in the trip's success.
02:11Let's have a successful next trip.
02:14It's a short time to catch. We need to get out there.
02:17It's the name of the game, the fishing.
02:22It's January, and Northern Eagle is at port in Dutch Harbor, on Alaska's Aleutian island chain.
02:30They are 1,300 kilometers southwest of Anchorage,
02:33almost as close to Japan as they are to the U.S. lower 48 states.
02:38It's one of the most remote places on Earth.
02:42Northern Eagle spends seven months of every year in Alaska,
02:46but spawning has just a two-week peak, and that's right now.
02:51This is when the fish gather together by the millions and are easiest to find.
02:58Sixty competing ships are out there fishing.
03:01Northern Eagle is the most modern, and her captain is eager to get going.
03:07We've got a lot of fish to catch, so every hour sitting in here
03:11is lost revenue and lost time that we're out there.
03:16But Northern Eagle isn't going anywhere until some big problems are solved.
03:23The rotor on one of the ship's two main power generators broke down on their last voyage.
03:29That's a big problem for chief engineer Otto Galdil.
03:34We're going to make him sit here.
03:38His team can't repair the generator on site, so they hoist it ashore.
03:43He has two backup generators, but those are rarely used.
03:50Yeah, right now we're running on a backup generator, and we're down one major player,
03:55so we're kind of struggling here this trip,
03:57but we're going to be struggling here with only three out of four generators,
04:00so there's going to be a little bit, a couple of blackouts here,
04:04but hopefully everything's going to go okay, not too much trouble.
04:10There's no time to wait for a replacement.
04:17Dutch Harbor is a remote, hostile place at the best of times.
04:21In January, flights in and out are unpredictable.
04:27Otto Galdil decides they will make this voyage using the ship's two main power generators.
04:33Between them, they generate the same power as the dead one.
04:36In theory, it should work, but in practice, they've never tried it.
04:43If it doesn't work, there's no other solution.
04:46I think the engine is so cold now, it hunts a little bit.
04:50In the engine room, mechanic Sambar Sars is out to ensure
04:54the ship's second main generator keeps working.
04:57If it fails, this high-profit operation will be broke.
05:17The generator is just one big problem.
05:20There's another, a hole in the hull.
05:24We have a hole in the bottom of the forepeak ballast tank.
05:27It leaks a little bit of seawater into this tank,
05:30so we have divers down there patching that up.
05:36We don't want it to be a major event, so we want to fix it now before we leave.
05:42The stakes are high.
05:46American Seafoods is the largest supplier of pollock in the world.
05:50And Northern Eagle is the company's biggest ship.
05:55In the on-board fish factory, all is quiet.
05:58You guys going to put that sensor in?
06:00Foreman Jack Nussbaum utilizes this downtime.
06:03Do you think there's something we can get done before we get fish?
06:10The higher the product is, the higher-revenue product is,
06:13everybody makes more money with that.
06:15Hey, you know what?
06:17The higher the product is, everybody makes more money with that.
06:20Pay, pay, pay, pay.
06:22What else you got going on? Anything besides this?
06:25I've got to look at my list again.
06:27So we want to do it quickly, we want to make it as quickly as possible,
06:30as fast as possible, everybody makes more money in that way.
06:33It takes a day and a half, but the problems are finally fixed.
06:39All right, the divers got the patch on, so we should be ready to go fish.
06:44The backup generators are running, and the leak in the hull is repaired.
06:49Time to leave port.
06:51We're expecting this to be a really fast trip,
06:53a high-paced trip, high-production trip,
06:55so we're really pumped up, we want to get out there as soon as we can.
07:00It's go time.
07:03It's 3pm. The Arctic winter sun is setting.
07:08Northern Eagle pulls out of Dutch Harbour,
07:11straight into the jaws of the Bering Sea.
07:14They are hoping for a huge catch on this two-week trip.
07:18But with one main generator down, and the harsh January weather,
07:22this could be one tough voyage.
07:25We're ready to take off here.
07:27Yeah, yeah, you got both the engines, and they're both clutched in,
07:31so we're ready to go fishing.
07:33Good. We're leaving town.
07:37The Bering Sea is a deadly, unforgiving place.
07:42Cold, stormy and remote,
07:44fishing here is one of the riskiest jobs on the planet.
07:49But at more than 100 metres long, Northern Eagle is a huge ship,
07:53and can ride out even the wildest storms,
07:56while many of her competitors are tossed like toys.
08:00Fishing is gambling, and there are no guarantees.
08:03It's all about instinct.
08:06Captain Janssen follows his gut.
08:10He takes Northern Eagle back to the place they last fished a few days ago,
08:14where the pollock were plentiful.
08:17We're in 49 Farms Depth.
08:20Sonar scans the bottom, searching for huge fish.
08:24But it's not easy.
08:27Sonar scans the bottom, searching for huge schools of pollock
08:31that can bring the crew a big paycheck.
08:34When we're fishing, we're using the sonar.
08:37It shows at 80 degrees or 360 degrees underneath the vessel,
08:42around us, where the fish is, along the bottom.
08:45This is the bottom right here.
08:47But all the technology in the world can't tell a fisherman
08:50where to actually find the fish.
08:53And here, there are none.
08:56The captain is baffled.
08:59We left the charbour last night,
09:02and this morning we're over at the area where we could start to see some fish.
09:08We had been in this area here before, last trip,
09:12and right now we're just looking along the bottom
09:16and see if we can find anything that looks like pollock sign.
09:20And it's daylight, so it's a little bit difficult to find the fish.
09:26Fish follow the food in the ocean.
09:29The currents have taken the food, and the fish, elsewhere.
09:35It's as if Captain Jonsson has led the ship to a fishless sea.
09:41It's the first day of the most important fishing trip of the entire year.
09:45Spawning season.
09:47But Northern Eagle has sailed to a place where there are no fish to be caught.
09:53The crew is paid according to the value of the catch.
09:56All eyes are on the captain.
09:59Tough job. There's something we've got to do.
10:02No, there's nothing to see here.
10:05We're ready to rock and roll.
10:08He scours the sea with sonar, looking for Alaska pollock.
10:12Looking.
10:14You never know when we'll find it, but it might take some time.
10:18It's there.
10:20Finally, he finds fish.
10:23It's a big one.
10:26It's a big one.
10:30Finally, he finds fish.
10:33Pollock are the only fish in the Bering Sea that move in large schools.
10:38In mid-water depths between 100 and 600 metres.
10:42This is fish. This is stuff we've been waiting for.
10:46Don't know exactly what size of fish it is, but it's only one way to find out.
10:52Let's try to put it down and get a sample.
10:55Captain Jonsson calls down to the control room.
10:58Time to deploy the nets.
11:01Engine room.
11:02Otto, is everything fine downstairs?
11:04Yeah.
11:05I'm going to start the pumps and set it out.
11:07Yeah, go for it.
11:08Okay, thanks.
11:09Just keep an eye on the power factor here.
11:13It's on.
11:14Okay.
11:15On the deck, the crew releases the net.
11:23Plunging down more than 500 metres below the surface,
11:26it stretches out a kilometre behind the ship,
11:29with tension sensors at different locations to measure how full the net is.
11:35When filled, it can hold up to 180 tonnes of live fish.
11:42There's even a video camera at its mouth that allows the crew to view fish entering the net.
11:50More than 95% of the catch is pollock.
11:53The remainder is other fish.
11:55And by the standards of other fisheries, that number is remarkably low.
12:03Pollock are among the world's fastest reproducing fish.
12:07With millions here and strict limits on the catch,
12:10there is virtually no danger of overfishing.
12:15Two hours pass.
12:17The net is full.
12:19This is what the crew calls a bag.
12:22It's almost got a bag here, but we just want to see what it is
12:25before we start spending more time in this area.
12:29If the fish are too small, it's not worth continuing to fish here.
12:34Here, I'll go get the strap ready.
12:36The deck crew hauls in the net.
12:40The back end of the net will go to the surface behind us here shortly.
12:46We'll see this bag start floating with all the fish in it
12:49until the seagulls are back to going crazy.
12:53Deckhand Dave Flanders gets ready to open the net.
12:57Pretty gnarly.
13:03This right here is the zipper. We have it choked.
13:06We're going to pop it and let the fish into the tank.
13:09It's pretty simple. Right now it has a little knot right here.
13:12Lift up with the snottle, the hook.
13:15Fish come out.
13:21Now we need to control the flow of fish for the factory.
13:24We've got four tanks and we catch each tank holds 40 tons.
13:28A quick visual inspection confirms the catch is almost all pollock
13:32with very few other fish mixed in.
13:35We can only dump 40 tons.
13:37After that, we have to choke it back up
13:39and wait for another tank to be empty before we dump another 40 tons.
13:43Captain Jönsson is not happy with what he sees.
13:47Look at the small.
13:51This is small fish.
13:53This is not the kind of fish we want to see the first time.
13:58Small fish produce smaller fillets and they are less profitable.
14:04Hey, Koda, we're going to have to look around for some bigger fish.
14:09All right, I've got to go back to work.
14:12Captain Jönsson decides to go further west,
14:15following the shoal to an area where he's had luck before.
14:21Even though the fish are small, the factory gets to work.
14:25The fish run from the holding tanks along 650 metres of conveyor belt
14:30for sorting and filleting before being flash-frozen,
14:34boxed and dropped into the hold of the ship.
14:40The factory is new, replaced just a year ago.
14:44Of the 140 people aboard, 90 work on the factory floor.
14:49Their first task is sorting the pollock by size and weight.
14:53Get a real nice sort so the mechanics can work on the machines
14:57and get as much out of the fish as you can.
15:00Then the pollock enter the main production line.
15:04This first stage de-heads, guts, skins and de-bones the fish
15:11at a rate of 150 per minute.
15:14We are producing the best quality fillets all the time.
15:20With a total of six lines running,
15:23Northern Eagle can process a whopping 900 fish per minute
15:27or 54,000 pollock per hour.
15:34This is the gut table.
15:36We're going to have to pick up the pace a little bit.
15:39Come on, guys, chuff-chuff!
15:41US government observers on board the ship monitor everything that they catch.
15:48They document any fish that aren't pollock.
15:51Those fish are frozen and given to a food bank back in Alaska.
15:57Out on the floor, factory foreman Jack Nussbaum inspects the line.
16:04We've got to make sure that the skinning is proper.
16:07This right here is what we call regular skinning.
16:10The fillets will be turned into fish sticks and patties
16:14for the fast food restaurants across North America.
16:18McDonald's, Juan John Silver's, Burger King.
16:22Americans love a fish that doesn't taste like fish.
16:25That's what you get with this.
16:27Very little flavour, but it's a great, great fish
16:30that you can turn into anything.
16:32There are hundreds of razor-sharp blades moving around on the factory floor.
16:37One mistake can cost a worker a finger, a hand, even an arm.
16:42And the nearest hospital is a two-day trip away.
16:46It's an extremely dangerous place to work.
16:49Everything out here can hurt you.
16:51Everything can hurt you.
16:53Everybody knows the dangers all through the factory.
16:57It's hard, dangerous work, but it's worth the money.
17:01The crew gets paid double what they would for a similar job on land.
17:05In four hours, the net is empty.
17:11The final stage is the plate freezer.
17:14The fish are flash-frozen in 21-kilogram boxes at minus 40 degrees.
17:21Northern Eagle costs $75,000 a day to operate.
17:25And the small fish in today's catch won't fetch as much money as bigger ones.
17:31The captain also needs to find mature fish,
17:34because they can take a long time to mature.
17:37It's a lot of work.
17:39It's a lot of work.
17:41It's a lot of work.
17:43It's a lot of work.
17:45It's a lot of work.
17:47The captain also needs to find mature fish,
17:49because they contain eggs, also called roe.
17:54In Sturgeon, these eggs produce caviar,
17:57one of the world's most exquisite foods.
18:00In Pollock, the eggs are popular in Asian cuisine.
18:05The roe is the most valuable part of the fish at market,
18:08and Northern Eagle's main source of profit.
18:13The roe is in an egg sac within the female fish.
18:16The bigger the fish, the bigger the sac.
18:21Good Pollock roe fetches five times as much money as the fillets.
18:26If Captain Jonsson can't find fish that have roe,
18:30the entire voyage may only financially break even.
18:35We don't really know of a lot of other areas where there is a lot of fish at this time.
18:41So, let's see if we can make this work.
18:47There's no hiding the fact that the catches so far have been disappointing.
18:52If we can't fish, then we don't make money.
18:57The crew is a superstitious bunch,
19:00and rumours now simmer beneath the surface,
19:03as Captain Jonsson lost his magic touch.
19:07You're only as good as your last toe.
19:11It's a short way from hero to zero.
19:22Dawn breaks on the factory trawler, Northern Eagle.
19:25You can see it all the way around me.
19:27Captain Jens Jonsson is feeling the heat.
19:30Yes, the pressure is on.
19:32Living on the boat like this for two weeks at a time, every day,
19:37you can't get away, you just walk one floor down to your room for a few hours and back up again.
19:44The pressure is there.
19:46With the latest trawl comes new hope.
19:49Pull up your door legs.
19:51They've found fish, and the net is filling fast.
19:55Dave Flanders and the rest of the trawl crew are hoping it's the catch they've been waiting for.
20:00It looks like a big one.
20:01It's going to be a big one. Probably like 120, 130.
20:05Hopefully it's big fish.
20:08There's a lot of fish here.
20:10Now it seems their hopes have been realised.
20:14This one's pretty good.
20:17We're happy.
20:18Great day, great haul.
20:20We're going to get some money out of this fish.
20:23On the bridge, the captain's mood has changed.
20:26He's happy with the fish.
20:28Things seem to be turning around for Northern Eagle and her crew.
20:34Those are the days that we like to see.
20:37Just then, an unexpected, potentially catastrophic problem.
20:42We lost the water.
20:44Everything?
20:47See the guys?
20:49Lose the water?
20:51A water pump is broken, meaning the factory is dry.
20:56What we've got is an emergency shut-off on our water
20:59because our sump pump on the starboard side aft went out.
21:03But we're going to be down until we get this water down.
21:06Every day, the factory uses 650,000 litres of purified water
21:11produced from seawater to process the fish.
21:15Without water, the factory shuts down.
21:18The fish sitting on the deck need to be processed within the hour.
21:22If not, the precious eggs, or roe, start to change colour
21:26and can be downgraded in price.
21:29Yeah, this is very, very bad timing.
21:31We're losing money right now.
21:32The roe's getting older, the fish is getting older.
21:34We're losing money as we speak.
21:40It's tangled up with a bunch of twine.
21:43The crew works frantically to fix the pump.
21:45It takes 25 minutes, an eternity on the factory floor.
21:53The only way we're able to get up and running this quick
21:55is everybody working together.
21:57OK, so the pump is fixed and it's ready for us to set again?
22:05It's too late.
22:06Some of the fish eggs have not been removed from the pollock in time
22:09to prevent them from turning slightly green.
22:12In Asia, fresh pink roe is the only roe worth buying.
22:17Its quality and value has been downgraded.
22:21The big money is gone.
22:24Despite the setback, other processing aboard Northern Eagle pushes ahead.
22:33Another product produced here is a fish paste called surimi.
22:38It's used to make 1,500 different fish products in Asia.
22:42It's also the main ingredient of imitation crab in North America.
22:47Lead technician Lopaka Cole checks the surimi quality.
22:52This is the surimi section over here.
22:55We take all the fillets that come off the top,
22:57all the scalp pieces, run them through the mincer.
23:00And after it leaves the mincer, we head over to our washer section.
23:04And from there, we run through a series of refineries,
23:07separate all the best of the protein.
23:10On deck below, Andre Ciesla is working on Northern Eagle's latest product,
23:15fish oil, loaded with Omega-3.
23:20This is fish oil already coming here.
23:24After all the squeezing and cooking, taking away the solids,
23:29this is final product right here.
23:34Smells excellent.
23:36I have a lot of takers.
23:37They come here and have a little shot from time to time.
23:40It's nice and pure.
23:43Andre Ciesla and his team also make fertilizer out of bones,
23:47skin, heads and tails.
23:51And this unglamorous part of the operation
23:53accounts for 13% of the ship's total revenue.
24:01After five days at sea, the net has filled ten times.
24:05500 tons of fish fillets are in the freezer.
24:09But the fish are too small.
24:11They are not getting their quota of big, female pollock
24:14filled with fish eggs or roe.
24:21Looks pretty crappy, huh?
24:23Yeah, we're not making any money on this, bro.
24:25Smaller fish doesn't have the size of roe that we would like to have.
24:30So now we're moving a little bit shallower
24:32to see if we can find some better quality fish.
24:35First mate Brian Weber arrives on the bridge for the night shift
24:38to relieve the captain.
24:41Let's go a little bit shallower and see what we can find.
24:47Brian is frustrated.
24:49Still no fish.
24:53No, I'm going to find fish.
24:56I know there's fish around.
24:58I'm just not on them right now.
25:00So it's going to happen.
25:02I just don't know where it's going to be.
25:05Certainly not where I've been so far.
25:09He charts a course away from other vessels,
25:11northward, where no one is fishing.
25:15Is it a daring plan or a fisherman's folly?
25:21His gamble appears to have paid off.
25:23The sonar shows lots of fish.
25:27Now one of the berries of the night shift
25:31Now one of the Bering Sea's infamous storms sets in.
25:35Waves as high as a three-story building crash down on Northern Eagle.
25:40Gale force winds sweep across her decks.
25:44Foreman Jack Nussbaum reports to the bridge
25:47with a plan to keep the factory rolling,
25:49even while the ship is rocking.
25:52We won't be able to stop. We're just going to get slower.
25:55Yeah, we'll keep going.
25:57Just a couple extra people there,
25:59and do our usual safety precautions for bad weather,
26:01and we should be fine.
26:03Sounds good. Yeah, just keep me up and keep me informed.
26:05Thanks. Thanks, Jack.
26:08The factory floor can be a dangerous place
26:10when a ship is being tossed about.
26:12When we get into bad weather, it affects the factory a lot,
26:16because the waves are flying over here and there,
26:18the fish are going here and there.
26:20We need to do certain things to keep people safe,
26:22and that means we've got to go a little slower.
26:24All crews in the Bering Sea have seen their share of bad weather.
26:30Yeah, the weather today is pretty rough.
26:32This is a typical day in the Bering Sea in the wintertime,
26:36is how it normally is.
26:38Yeah, when the swells get pretty big like this,
26:41you need to watch where you're standing,
26:44watch the cables, pretty much watch everything.
26:48All it takes is one wave to sweep you away.
26:55The rough weather's just one problem.
26:57Another is the temperature.
26:59Because they have pushed north, the seawater is colder here,
27:03and the system that converts saltwater to freshwater is now frozen.
27:08The factory floor uses 650 litres of freshwater every day
27:13and could soon have none.
27:15What's the temperature of the water?
27:17Zero.
27:19From the control room, Chief Engineer Otto Gaudl phones Captain Jomsson.
27:24The situation is critical.
27:26Yeah?
27:28Jens, our water maker is freezing up
27:31and we have absolutely no production of freshwater.
27:35If we don't make a change quick, we're going to run out of freshwater
27:38and we're going to be dead in the water.
27:41The Chief formulates a plan with First Assistant Engineer Travis Jomsson.
27:47I got a crossover pipe from the engine seawater cooling
27:52that maybe could bleed back some warm engine cooling water
27:57into the seawater chest to warm up the seawater.
28:03Otto Gaudl is hoping to draw enough heat from a warm water pipe
28:07Otto Gaudl is hoping to draw enough heat from a warm pipe
28:10and heat the cold seawater.
28:12It might be warm enough just for us to keep the water maker going.
28:16The fix works.
28:18Disaster is averted.
28:20For now.
28:22On the factory floor, Jack Nussbaum has more problems.
28:27Well, we've got a few things this morning.
28:30We've got bad weather and we can't produce very fast because of that.
28:35We go about two-thirds speed, but we've got to go a little slower for safety.
28:39We've also got this machine down right now.
28:42This machine runs pretty big fish,
28:44so we can't put the fish that runs on this machine anywhere else.
28:48So we're pretty much stocked right now.
28:51We've got to get this row. We've got to get it quick.
28:53We're losing time.
28:54It's a macro row right now,
28:56and we've got to catch the fish and produce fast swaths.
28:59So this is really not a good day.
29:02First the weather, then no fresh water,
29:05and now a broken fillet machine.
29:12It's not a good day right now.
29:17And most of the fish they are catching are still too small.
29:23This is what we've got right now.
29:25This guy in about two or three years would be a lot more revenue in this.
29:30He probably has some mackerel in there, really nice fillets.
29:34We're not going to get much revenue out of that little guy.
29:41The factory chief has no choice.
29:43He must adjust the machines to fillet smaller fish,
29:46fish that have no eggs.
29:51It means Northern Eagle is just breaking even
29:54with a reduced take-home for her crew.
29:58On the stern deck, the crew brings in another haul of fish.
30:02From the bridge, Brian Weber spots a new problem.
30:06It's all good?
30:09OK, it looks like we have a rip here.
30:12The net is torn.
30:14OK, this is an extensive tear.
30:18The belly's been torn out of the net here.
30:21They haven't lost any fish,
30:23but it won't be possible to send this net back out.
30:27Peeled back into the net,
30:29so we're going to have to straighten it all out and see what's there.
30:33So it's a fairly big tear.
30:38Yeah, this is the worst one this season.
30:45It doesn't look too good.
30:47The next morning, with the auxiliary net in the water,
30:50the night shift is still trying to fix the tear.
30:54This is almost 12 hours later.
30:57They're still working at it here
30:59and try to pull it forward and patch it back up again.
31:07It's taken some time, but they're making progress.
31:11And the weather is only getting worse.
31:14That's a huge pain in the ass.
31:16These are the days that deckhand Dave Flanders dreads.
31:20It's been snowing all night, hard to walk.
31:23You don't have traction on your boots.
31:26Freezing cold, wet, hungry.
31:31And right now we only have one net to use.
31:34So if that net was to rip,
31:37then we'd kind of be in a tight spot right now.
31:41Days like this, I wish I was anything,
31:43anything but a fisherman.
31:45Despite their run of catching small, less profitable fish,
31:49the work continues.
31:51Another 100-ton bag comes back on deck.
31:54It looks really good.
31:56The deck crew works to pop the zipper.
31:59Suddenly, the line securing a 10-kilogram hook snaps.
32:04The hook swings dangerously 15 meters above the crew.
32:09Dave Flanders rushes to climb the A-frame,
32:12hoping to secure the hook
32:14before someone gets hurt or killed.
32:22On the fishing vessel Northern Eagle,
32:24a 10-kilogram hook swings unsecured,
32:27precariously above the crew.
32:30A 10-kilogram hook swings unsecured,
32:33precariously over the deck crew.
32:36If it fell, it could kill someone.
32:39Deckhand Dave Flanders climbs the ladder 15 meters up.
32:43He gets hold of the hook
32:45and gently lowers it back down to the deck.
32:48It doesn't look like much from down here,
32:50but when you're up there, it's high,
32:53especially when the boat's rocking.
32:56The problem is solved.
32:59The fish once again make their journey from the net
33:02into the factory for processing
33:04before being boxed and sent into the ship's holds.
33:10Well, it's tough working here because it's very, very cold.
33:15Tanga Ngando, originally from Congo,
33:18works in the minus-32-degree freezer.
33:21His family thinks he's crazy.
33:23My mom said she thinks something's wrong with my head.
33:28Tanga will help stack 70,000 boxes before the voyage is done.
33:32It's hard, cold work.
33:35But he'll make twice what he'd make on land,
33:38as long as Captain Jonson can find the big fish.
33:45It's been nine days since they left port,
33:48and they still need one haul of big fish to make a decent profit.
33:53Captain Jonson pushes further north.
33:56It's a huge risk.
33:58The ice can destroy the net.
34:01There's some nice fish here.
34:04But the problem is that the ice is so close.
34:07We have to fight with the ice to get the fish.
34:11These are some nice big fish.
34:13Hopefully we can get some roe out of this.
34:16Then a new unexpected delay.
34:18A Coast Guard ship approaches.
34:21Northern Eagle is about to be boarded.
34:27We're getting a visit from the United States Coast Guard.
34:33The Coast Guard does random spot checks
34:35on all fishing vessels in the Bering Sea
34:38to make sure they are obeying strict safety rules
34:41and not catching anything they shouldn't.
34:48We're coming over to do an inspection of our log books,
34:52to make sure that we're following rules and regulations,
34:56safety, that we have all our flares and survival suits,
34:59and that we do our drills.
35:01These searches are rare,
35:03and it's caught the crew of Northern Eagle off guard.
35:06The Coast Guard on the boat,
35:08but we've got to hold back right now.
35:11The crew brings in their net for the Coast Guard to inspect the catch.
35:18Down in the factory, two Coast Guard officers
35:21check the fish line to make sure there are no illegal fish.
35:26When they come on board, they come on in force.
35:29They usually come on about 12 guys,
35:31and they check all the important areas immediately.
35:34That's what they're doing right now.
35:36They're making sure that we're taking care of the fish
35:39the way we're supposed to, we're not doing anything illegally.
35:42Coast Guard officer Kelly Kolodzik
35:44has never seen a factory floor as large or as modern as Northern Eagle's.
35:50It's an interesting process here
35:52because they have the processing plant as well as the fishing vessel,
35:56so it's like a one-stop shop for them.
35:58It's a little scary down there.
36:00There's a lot of machinery.
36:02Those guys look like they work really, really hard.
36:05Northern Eagle has passed their inspection with flying colours.
36:09Take care, guys.
36:13Now back to work.
36:20Brian Weber shows up for the night shift uneasy about the ice.
36:26There are lots of little bits of ice floating around
36:29that could actually, you know, mess us up,
36:32but I can't see them until it's too late right now,
36:35so hopefully luck's with us.
36:40Hours later, he brings in a huge net of fish.
36:45It's got to be 180 tonnes-plus.
36:48The net strains under the weight of the haul,
36:52and the line snaps.
36:54The crew ducks for cover.
36:56The rope could cut through any one of them like a knife.
36:59Broke two lifting bridles,
37:01and I heard one of the chains on the rib lines on the cotton break,
37:06so we've got some work to do.
37:11The engineers are facing another big problem.
37:14The main generator is dead from a previous trip.
37:17The combined forces of the two backup generators
37:20have been picking up the slack,
37:22but they have never before been tested to these limits.
37:38There are obvious draws on the ship's power supply,
37:41like the propellers and the winches that hold in the nets.
37:44The on-board factory is another major draw.
37:49The most power is drawn by the flash freezers and refrigerated holds.
37:54Now, with everything running at once,
37:57the power to the factory drains.
38:02No power?
38:04Oh, we just lost the power at the worst possible moment ever.
38:08It's a serious power cut.
38:10All the power's off the whole PLC.
38:12If Jack Neusbaum and his team
38:14don't get the systems back up and running right away,
38:17the factory will take more than half an hour to reboot.
38:21You think you can save it?
38:23If he doesn't get the decanter going in the next five, ten minutes,
38:26we're going to lose it for half an hour, maybe even an hour.
38:37Everything looks good here, Jack.
38:39Lepaka Kol gets the job done with just minutes to spare.
38:45Captain Jens Jonsson is anxious to wrap up this trip.
38:49But he needs one really good haul before heading home.
38:53It's not just a matter of profit, but also of pride.
38:57We're fighting the elements, the ice, the wind,
39:01and trying to get our last couple of toes of good fish
39:06He decides to head north once again, and into more ice.
39:11It's the furthest north on their entire trip,
39:14and a huge risk to their nets.
39:22The captain finds fish.
39:24But are they big ones?
39:28Were you able to get a sample out of the last bag?
39:32Captain Jonsson gets the word.
39:35He's looking at perfectly sized fish for valuable eggs.
39:40That's fantastic. That was well worth it.
39:44Yeah, but is that the last one?
39:47Yes, that was the last one.
39:50That's fantastic.
39:53Yeah, but is that the last one?
39:56Yes, that is our last toe for this trip here.
39:59They'll put us over 1,500 in a full boat.
40:03Okay, good deal.
40:09This is the money, right here. Right there.
40:12Large mako, the highest dollar, right there.
40:17This is the good stuff.
40:20This catch yields the best row of the entire voyage,
40:24bringing each of them profit,
40:26as they are paid by the value of the catch.
40:30Northern Eagle's crew is going home to a big paycheck,
40:34thanks to their captain's determination, skill and luck.
40:39This trip has ended.
40:43It's a good feeling.
40:46But the journey isn't quite over yet.
40:50There is a severe blizzard at their home port of Dutch Harbour,
40:54and visibility is almost zero.
40:57We're coming around the red can here.
41:00So we'll be there probably in about an hour.
41:03We should be good and tied up.
41:06A lot of traffic. You can't see a thing.
41:10We just passed two mooring buoys right inside here,
41:14where they usually fuel barges are tied up on.
41:18You can barely see the dock we're going into over there now,
41:22with a couple of lights.
41:25So today we're taking it a little slow to get into the dock.
41:30The captain is stressed.
41:32There is never any room for error coming into Dutch Harbour.
41:36A night has fallen, making visibility worse.
41:45This is it. The dock is right over there.
41:49Just a couple of boat links in front of us.
41:52And it's still not clear.
41:57Finally, blindly, he gets Northern Eagle to the dock.
42:04Here we are, touching the dock.
42:07The Eagle has landed.
42:11Unloading begins.
42:14675 tonnes of fish fillets, frozen and processed.
42:20675 tonnes of surimi, to be shipped to Asia
42:24and turned into dozens of fish products.
42:2992 tonnes of omega-3 fish oil.
42:33240 tonnes of fish meal.
42:37And finally, 170 tonnes of precious roe.
42:42The eggs worth almost 2 million dollars to Asian buyers.
42:48After 27 hours, the holds are empty.
42:5210 hours later, Northern Eagle heads straight back out
42:56to try for another big catch.
42:59This prime fishing season is short,
43:02and it's the only time to make the big money.
43:05It's a good feeling when you do find good fish.
43:08You're happy, everybody's happy.
43:11It never ends, until the day that you're going home.
43:14Then you think, nothing but going home.
43:17Until then, this is what we do.
43:20For captain and crew, it's not just about the cash.
43:24It's about the challenge of being the best fishing ship in the world.
43:35For more information visit www.fishingtacklesale.com