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golden crab
Those of you who may be familiar with “Deadliest Catch” have seen boats fishing for king crab and snow crab (opilio) using “single pots”. Each pot has it’s on lie and buoys. Red King crab & Opilio live on relatively flat and shallow bottom (approximately 50 fathoms,= 300feet) in Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea
We’re fishing for deep water king crab, called Brown Crab or Golden Crab. Golden Crab is a marketing term because it was thought that “golden” is more appealing than “brown”. We pretty much call them brown crab. These crab live in deeper water, 100 – 300 fathoms or more (600 – 1800 feet) and the live on hard bottom and along the edges in the Aleutian Islands. The Aleutians are a beautiful & dynamic place to fish, and things can get very extreme, because we are working in waters where 2 oceans come together, The Bering Sea and the North Pacific.
Brown King Crab is a spinier, slightly smaller version of the Red Crab, but the meat is virtually identical. We “live tank” them, meaning we keep them on board, live, in circulating sea water and deliver live crab to Dutch harbor, a 2 day run.
Against the tide
If at all possible, you want to run a string “with” the tidal current, not against it. Often, especially if weather is not a factor, we can simply drift down the string, with engines @ idle. When the tides are small (& not a lot of current), I’ll always consider the weather first. In this case, we’ll haul against the current, in order to keep the deck (& the guys) dry or out of the wind.
When the tides are really ripping, which is often, you want to avoid hauling against the current at all cost. Hauling against a strong current is noisy (the line is super tight & much noisier in the block), it’s a slower haul, the line is more likely to part (break), the pots get dragged around & beat up on the bottom, and the engines are always in gear, sometimes at fairly high RPM’s. Overall, a much tenser situation.
The tide can run so hard, that it drags the buoys under, so we’ll look for a set, knowing that we need to haul from a certain direction, and the buoys may not be there. In this case, a little battle starts in my head. The dialogue goes something like this:
“I’ll just go to the other end to see if they’re up. If they are, there’s no way I’ll haul from that direction. I’ll just come back later. Mostly, I just want to see which direction they’re hanging” Then as we approach the mark, I may see 1 or 2 of the buoys showing (we have 5 on a set up). Then I say “I’m just going to drive up the them to see how far off the mark they are” and sure enough, before you know it, we have them in the block, and we’re hauling against the tide.
Hauling against the tide does not make me popular with the crew!
Tides in Alaska are huge, and tidal currents, especially in the Aleutians where two oceans come together, are epic. Add wind and you create tide rips that look like maelstroms
April 14
Some shots from the crabbing boat!
MR: “Will try & send some more pics but internet here is really sketchy!”
checking in
Michael was in port briefly, so he was able to talk to Front Desk Manager Laura Plourde. This report from Laura: “Michael has picked up a little sailor talk but he feels like he’ll lose it before he gets home …the weather has been crappy making the crabbin harder. But they were expecting better weather so the crabbin should pick up….he’s having fun but missing us too and to tell everyone he said hello!”
Wild and wooly weather in the Aleutians!
Island Fitness 