5 things you need to know about the deadliest catch season 20 tragedy that shocked the fleet
- The deadliest catch season 20 premiere revealed a terrifying new hazard: rogue waves hitting the Bering Sea with unprecedented frequency, catching veteran captains off guard and leading to the first major medical evacuation in three seasons.
- Captain Sig Hansen's F/V Northwestern nearly capsized after a rogue wave ripped a critical deck hatch, flooding the bait hold and forcing the crew to perform a dangerous emergency pump operation during a full-scale storm.
- A shocking crew mutiny unfolded on the F/V Time Bandit as greenhorn deckhands walked off the job mid-crab pot, leaving the boat dangerously short-handed in the deadliest catch conditions, with only two experienced men left to haul gear.
- The deadliest catch introduced a new digital tracking system this season, but it backfired spectacularly when a software glitch misidentified crab pots as empty, causing one boat to lose thousands of dollars worth of catch.
- A previously unseen danger emerged when a 50-foot sperm whale was spotted actively following a crab boat for two days, raising concerns among the deadliest catch fleet that the massive marine mammal could snag lines and pull the boat off course.