When a fishing boat left port in Alaska in December 2019 with an experienced crew, an icy storm was brewing. What happened to them shows why deep sea fishing is one of the most dangerous professions in the world
T
he Scandies Rose fishing boat set out to sea from Kodiak, Alaska on 30 December 2019 with a crew of seven, into weather as bad as anything December could throw. “It was enough of a shitty forecast,” said one of the crew in later testimony, “I didn’t think we were going to leave that night.” At 8.35pm, fierce, frigid winds were blowing. Some boats stayed in harbour but the Scandies Rose still set out. “We knew the weather was going to be bad,” said deckhand Dean Gribble, “but the boat’s a battleship, we go through the weather.”
The boat was carrying 7,000kg of bait and was headed north towards the Bering Sea. “She was trim, said Dean, and a good boat. Gary Cobban was a good captain. One of the last jobs before departure was to stack the crab pots properly. There were 198 on board. That is a heavy load but not unusual. Each pot measured more than 2 metres by 2 metres. “Big, heavy fucking pots,” Gribble said.
The stack was huge. Gribble had to climb all over it. It was four or five pots high and with all his checking and re-checking, his legs and arms were burning. “The pots were stacked great,” said Gribble. Every row had a chain on it, “and it was tied down a lot. There were ties everywhere. They were tight.” Crab pots stacked badly could affect stability, and lack of stability can sink a boat. When the US Coast Guard had begun doing pre-departure stability checks in Alaska ports in the 1990s, fatalities and sinkings were reduced by almost 70%. Cobban expected conditions to be “icing”, and a crab pot laden with ice can weigh more than 1,000kg. “Fuck,” said Gribble. “It seemed fine.”
