The Final Run

With the deaths of the Big Valley crew, this Opilio crab season has been a rough one. On every boat, crew members are reaching their limit, but are spurred on by the pressure to catch a year’s wages in the next 24 hours. As the last hours of the season tick down, a new race begins: the race back to port. Since off-loading is done on a first-come-first-serve basis, captains must decide when and where to unload their catch, competing for the best spot in line at the processor. Crab can’t last forever in a boat, so a few days waiting could mean tens of thousands of dollars.