Brad Goes Crabbing In Alaska

Hey, guys.

Today on It's Alive we're gonna, oh god, oh god!

So it's like, hey, we're in Alaska.

Gonna go out on a crabbing boat.

(fast-paced, rhythmic rock music)

One thing I love, Vinny, crabs.

You know what I've never had?

Fresh crabs, right out of the ocean, Vinny.

Hopefully today we're gonna change that.

Hey, guys.

Today on It's Alive we're up here in Tenakee, Alaska.

We're gonna be going after some Bairdi crabs.

We're gonna get down on deck, pull up some pots,

sort out the crabs, gonna show you the process.

So I hope you brought your work pants, Vinny.

Let's get down on the deck, get to work, bud.

(jazz music)

Alright, Vinny, here with Steve.

He's a deckhand/engineer for the boat that we're on here.

Steve, what are we doing?

We're gonna do some bait.

We got jars, we got bags, and we got hang baits here.

Okay.

So this is our herring that's ground up.

Grab a jar.

Alright.

Pop the top.

Get a nice big scoop of herring and shove it in.

Ah, looks great.

Snap it closed.

Snap it closed, then hang it over here.

[Brad] Alright, not too bad.

Ah, yeah, Vinny.

Eat lunch yet, Vin?

These are all grinded up and mushed up here.

Is there a reason why you guys do that?

We do that so that it gets all the oils

and the scents in the water.

That way the crab can smell it and they come to the pots.

Okay.

Pretty good?

Yep.

Nicely done.

Now clip it over there.

Alrighty, so now we got our hang bait

which is humpies in the row.

Ah, humpies in the row!

Then what we do is cut 'em

right down like that, filet it out like that.

Do the same thing with the head.

Bait hook like this, right through the head

and then through the tail.

Then you hook it up and toss them in there.

Just like that. Just like that.

And what were we calling these bad boys?

These are humpies.

Humpies.

Call 'em humpies in the row there.

Gill net caught.

Gill net caught.

Nothing but the best, Vinny.

You ready?

I'm gonna go down here and cut this in half, bud.

[Steve] So that one's a male.

[Brad] It's a male?

[Steve] Yep, you can tell.

See that that just fell out?

[Brad] Yeah.

[Steve] That's the sperm sac.

[Brad] Sperm sac, Vinny.

Approved?

Yep.

Now clip it together so it don't fall off.

Right in here.

[Steve] Right in there.

[Brad] Alright, cool.

One, two, what's the, what's the trifect?

[Steve] The third.

So we're gonna step on over here to this big tub.

So now, here is our ground up salmon.

[Brad] Oh yeah, delish.

[Steve] So we're gonna grab a bag,

and we fill these all the way to the top.

So that's great.

Three different types of bait,

all releasing different types of oils.

Oh, I'm having a blast, Vinny.

Started on the bottom, you know.

I'm not gonna be up there driving the boat, you know.

You're gonna be down here filling the bait bags.

Don't take no shortcuts here on It's Alive.

Ain't nothing alive about this bin.

I'll tell you that much, Vinny.

Alright, Vinny, play your cards right, you know,

when we leave you get a little goody bag.

Go ahead and take that home, Vinny.

(jazz music)

Alright, Steve, so we just learned about,

you showed me the ropes on all the bait.

I'm assuming that bait goes into this here trap, right?

Indeed it does.

This is our seven foot cone.

They've got a mud ring on the bottom

to keep 'em up off the bottom a little bit.

The crab will come along, climb up, drop down the tunnel.

All right.

The tunnels are there so the crab can't crawl back out.

We got our escape rings over here

to let our undersized crab away.

And you say these things go down, you know,

where we're crabbing, a couple hundred feet, huh?

Easy.

Yeah, it's 75 fathoms, so.

75 fathoms, Vince.

A fathom is six feet.

(electronic beeps)

Yeah, you do the math, Steve.

(laughing)

And it's a crab pot, not a trap.

Yes.

Okay.

So this is the pucker that I'm grabbing right now.

You gotta pucker the pot up so the crab doesn't get out.

[Brad] Pucker, yep.

[Steve] Alrighty, so climb on up here.

And you want to go in between this right here.

Come up in between there?

[Steve] Yep.

Otherwise that bag will hang up against the side of the pot

and they don't gotta get in.

[Brad] All right.

[Steve] Perfect.

[Brad] And then this, anywhere?

[Steve] That one, too.

Yep, anywhere.

All right.

Then we got a hang bait.

So unclip it like this,

and then go through the hole with that one

and then clip it like that.

[Brad] Nice.

And that's how we set our pots.

[Brad] Not bad.

Just stand over here.

Right like that.

And when that beep goes, we'll both boop.

[Deckhand] I'll let you do it yourself.

You'll have no problem.

Alright, I'm ready.

[Deckhand] You'll slow down.

It's always gonna be a few minutes.

(laughing)

You can hang out there.

Alright, I'm ready, Chris.

(electronic beep)

(motor hums)

[Brad] See ya.

Now we got another one.

[Brad] Another one, coming in.

Yeah, what you want to do is keep this baited tight

and high up so that the crabs want to go in,

you know, and not just eat it on the outside.

Hang bait.

Building the trifecta, Vinny.

We're just waiting for the captain's beep now, Vinny.

(beep)

[Deckhand] Perfect.

17 clear.

Look at us, Vinny.

Crabbing, baby, woo!

Alright, now we're gonna haul a couple pots.

(jazz music)

Alrighty, so when we're coming up to a pot,

we got our buoy and then we got

a smaller buoy called a trailer,

and you want to take the hook

and you're gonna hit the line

in between your buoy and your trailer buoy.

You feed that line through the hauler

which goes over here to the autocoiler

and then this coils the line up on the ground

so it's all nice and neat.

[Brad] Nice and nice.

[Steve] Nice and nice.

And then, after that,

you either reset the pot or we stack it.

Awesome.

[Steve] Here we go.

We got a pot coming.

[Brad] Ooh!

That's why the call him daddy.

[Steve] Here comes the pot.

(motors whirring)

Up.

So you just want to unsnap the stuff you've already done.

[Brad] Uh huh.

Just drop it in?

Drop it right in the pot.

Now we're coming up.

Then you can grab the pucker.

[Brad] Pucker.

[Deckhand] Let her fly.

[Steve] Drop her.

Throw, throw, throw, throw.

Aww.

(sad trombone blast)

[Deckhand] Okay, you got it.

[Brad] That's it?

[Steve] No, it's too far.

[Chris on speaker] Dude, harsh.

(laughing)

[Brad] I wasn't ready.

[Steve] He wasn't ready.

[Brad] I don't like that.

[Vinny] I love it.

Screw you, Vinny.

(laughing)

Damn seagulls trying to get in on it,

like they want the bait.

Alright, here we go, quit (bleep)in' around.

Tom, this ones for you, Tommy, one shot!

(faint cheering)

[Steve] Yeah!

Nice throw.

[Vinny] I wasn't recording that one.

Oh, you stop it.

(motor whirring)

[Steve] All right, here we go.

Riders!

[Brad] So what do I do, I just grab this?

[Steve] Yep.

That.

Pull back.

Now up and over.

Down.

Perfect.

[Brad] Cool.

[Steve] Coming up!

[Brad] Tell me when to pucker.

[Steve] Go for it.

[Brad] Pucker!

[Steve] Perfect.

Now we start sorting crab.

(jazz music)

This here is just what?

So you're checking your gauging?

Yeah, it's got a crab gauge.

We've gotta check for undersized crab.

Okay.

So just point, the widest point?

[Steve] The widest point, including spines.

So that would be, uh.

Short.

Short. Undersized crab.

Throw them back.

Throw 'em back.

[Brad] Now what are these, males, females?

These are males right here.

Uh-huh.

Oh, yeah, this is a nice big boy.

[Steve] Yeah.

That looks like a keeper, Vinny.

Oh, yeah.

Well in it.

[Steve] Keeper crab go in the hold.

[Brad] Right in?

(bell ding)

[Steve] You were asking about males and females.

So these bigger crab here, these are all males.

And this is a female right here.

You can see the size difference.

You've got the male, it's got the small butt.

Then the females have the big butts.

[Brad] All right, ladies.

[Steve] If you notice,

it takes up the whole back on a female.

Very easy to tell the difference.

Females always throw, right?

Females are always going over.

See you later, lady!

And undersized.

We'll see you later, buddy.

Get you next year.

Now we've got another pot coming.

[Brad] Pot coming.

Now, real quick question, Steve.

Do they eat each other?

Do they fight each other?

No, they do not.

They do not.

Oh, yeah, that's a real nice one.

Pinch.

Rawr!

Little short.

Overboard, Vincenzo.

Keeper!

(laughter)

I can't help but wonder, all this water's in there.

How do you get the crabs out?

[Steve] How do we get 'em out of there?

So I've gotta go downstairs in the engine room

and redirect the plumbing.

Instead of pumping water out of the sea

I pump the water out of the hold into the ocean.

And then is there another door,

or do you just go down right here?

Nope.

This whole hatch that we're standing on comes off.

[Brad] Oh okay.

[Steve] The whole thing.

(jazz music)

All right, so we're done crabbing for the day

and now we've got another boat coming.

They pick up the crabs, so these guys, it's a short season,

they can just keep going out there crabbing.

I'm gonna jump down there into the live well,

we're pumpin' out the water.

We're gonna load up these plastic totes and that's it.

Call it a day, back to Juneau, baby.

You going down there, Vinny?

Oh, you're leaving me down here.

Oh, joke's on me.

I caught that one, Vinny.

Crabby!

There's a ton of 'em down here.

Catching this, bud?

Ow!

[Steve] 320 pounds.

320 pounds, Vinny.

Alaskan crab.

Au revoir!

Feisty.

Just like you, Vinny.

(bell ding)

(cheering)

Nice shot!

Still got it.

(laughter)

Coming up, Vinny!

(dramatic music)

(jazz music)

All right, guys, well that wraps up

the crabbing part of this episode,

and then tomorrow we'll see you guys,

we're gonna be up at the processing plant

and then show you how them steam 'em for you,

clean 'em, flash-freeze 'em.

And then you can get just that beautiful Alaskan flavor

just locked right in, sent to your house.

Bon apetit, Vincenzo.

Hopefully, man, Vinny, I tell you what,

we've got a little overcast.

But it'd be sweet, we've got this 10-hour boat ride back,

maybe catch a little, what are they called?

The Northern Lights?

Aurora Borealis or some shit.

(jazz music)

Oh god, Vinny.

Vinny, did you get the insurance?

Thank god.

Oh, here comes a big boy.

(jazz music)

Couple big boys in there, huh?

And the big boys.

Wow, yeah, big boy.

Oh yeah, this is a nice big boy.

Oh yeah, big boy.

Get out of there, big boy.

Oh yeah, big boy.

Ooh, big boy.

These bad boys are big.

We're gonna drop these bad boys in.

I'm gonna put the big boys on the bottom,

Vinny, because they're bigger.

Because these are some big boys.

Bad boys, bad boys.

That one straight down there is pretty big too, huh?

[Steve] Yeah.

There's some big boys in there.

[Brad] We're gonna cut this bad boy in half.

Oh, here comes a big boy.

Look at this bad boy!

Yeah, that's a big boy.

Big boy.

Big boy.

He's part of the boys now.

(jazz music)

(bleep)in' dinosaur.

Zoom in on that there, Vinny.

Oh, this guy bit my leg!

Jesus Christ.

Mother of God.

Vinny, they're biting my legs.

Oh my god, Vinny, it's like a horror movie.

There's millions of 'em.

(ominous orchestral music)

And then they go into the processing plant.

Crabs are fed into folks who are working the line.

First step of the line is not for the faint of heart,

but what they're doing is they're

just cracking the crabs in half.

Kills 'em quick, and then that goes to the next person.

As much as they can, they'll scrape off

as much of the lungs, which are on the inside of the crab.

Next step is this big nylon brush spinning.

And you hold the crabs by the legs,

get it up in that brush and (rolled r sound).

What that does is just remove any more of the lungs

that are on that crab.

Crabs have like these weird little face,

weird little mouths on them.

They snip those off and then clean up some of the excess

cartilage or whatever they call crab bone.

From there it goes down the line into

these big, freshwater tanks.

They call it a bleeding tank, even though there's no blood.

It just kinda cleans them off.

Next step, we go into another room

where all the crabs are laid out into these cages.

They get stacked up and then brought over

into the cooking room.

They have this big saltwater tank,

cook 'em for, you know, however long.

Trade secret.

And then pull them out and put them

into this big, ice-cold saltwater solution.

And because the saltwater allows the temperature

of the water to go below freezing,

and it actually freezes the crab solid in the liquid.

I know, it kinda goes against

what you think, but it works.

So what they do, it's fully cooked,

it's frozen, as fast as possible.

We're talking from the time you crack it in half

to the time it's frozen, you know, an hour.

And then from there right into the boxes,

right to the consumer.

Approved?

(mumbling)

Give it a little bang, a little rub?

Presto!

Thank you.

All right, guys, that wraps up crabbing.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

When you see things like this,

I hope it affects you as much as it affects me.

I'll never sit down to a plate of crabs

and look at it the same way.

They really are a product of their environment

and it's something that needs to be preserved.

If you care about stuff like that, you know,

and preserving, things like that,

you know, people do make a difference.

And being the consumer, we drive the market.

Preserving this, and these fisheries,

it means everything, you know?

As soon as they're gone, as soon as we destroy 'em,

we're not getting them back.

Make the change with how you shop.

Buy better seafood, it's worth it.

And I just want to give a big thanks

out to the folks of Alaska.

Alaskan Glacier Seafood, Captain Chris

and his crew, Steve and the boys.

At the end of the day it's all about respecting that chain.

Respecting the people involved,

respecting the environment

and setting up future generations.

So buy smart, eat better, bon apetit.

Look at that (bleep), Vince!

It's gonna be a good time, so bon apetit.

[Chad] And don't forget,

it's not about the quota or the avenue,

it's just time for the fish to pay their dues

for runnin', jumpin' and shakin' the hook,

and every single piece of bait they ever took.

Woo!

We found a new host, Vincenzo.

[Chad] We got hooks, gill nets.

(Titanic theme song)

When fish die, they go to the bottom.

And that's where the crabs are, cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.

Starboard's on the right, right?

Starboard's on the left?

It's on the right.

I was right.

Goddamn crows are everywhere up here, Vinny.

I saw my first legitimate murder of crow.

That's what they call it, right?

(crows squawking)

Damn crows are onto us again.

Uh-oh, crows are onto us.

I really like crows.

Crows.

Someone oughta tell these guys,

you put the lid on it, it boils faster, Vinny.

Learned that at culinary school.

I didn't go to culinary school.

[Guest] That's cool.

I did and I didn't learn anything.

(laughing)

[Brad] Oh, these bad boys?

XTRATUFs, man.

They're like the tennis shoes of Alaska.

It's all about the gear up here.

You know what we really need, Vinny,

I've got this light in my eyes.

I need some sunglasses.

Today on It's Alive we're gonna,

oh god, oh god, it bit me, Vince!

I won't do that again.

This one's feisty.

Hey guys, today on It's Alive we're up here in Alaska

doing a little, uh, what the (bleep) do they call 'em?

(laughter)

I never knew why dogs did that.

Is it because they wanna cover

their own scent from predators?

Like it's an old wolf thing, you know?

So predators don't go finding, I don't know.

I never figured it out.

Anyway.

Maybe dogs just do it 'cause they're nervous.

Nice and calm.

All right, ready?

Take 37.

And then, uh, oh, bald eagle, Vince.

Oh, butterfly!

There's no butterflies up here, man.

Where were we?