Season 7
| Series # | Season # | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 91 | 1 | "New Blood" | April 12, 2011 (2011-04-12) |
| The episode opens with footage of the crews holding an informal memorial for Phil Harris before the start of the King crab season. Phil's ashes are placed in a crab pot and then dropped into the sea (which according to Josh Harris was his fathers' wish), and the crews set off fireworks (and a few guns) into the air. The Kodiak, the Time Bandit, the Northwestern, the Wizard, and the Cornelia Marie (now under Captain Derrick Ray) are joined this season by two new boats: the Seabrooke (Captain Scott Campbell, Jr.), and the Ramblin' Rose (Captain Elliot Neese). The season is barely under way but tensions are already running high. On the Cornelia Marie, still in dock at Dutch Harbor, Jake & ships' mechanic Steve go on a shopping trip without letting Captain Derrick know. On their return Derrick & Steve get into a shouting match that nearly escalates into a physical confrontation. On the Wizard, Captain Keith listens to a distress call from cargo vessel Ever Unique regarding a crew member with a broken neck. The Coast Guard medivac chopper is dispatched to retrieve him, and despite the size of the massive ship, has a difficult time finding a suitable spot to lower their man. On the Northwestern, it is teased that Edgar Hansen has left the boat, with Sig wondering where his "baby brother " is. Edgar eventually is seen and begins work for his 23rd season. Meanwhile, Jake runs back and forth between the deck and the kitchen trying to have a meal ready for the crew who are confronted with a potentially work-ending issue with the crane. On the Seabrooke, problems are less serious: an empty coffee pot. While the coffee pot may be empty, they find full crab pots. On the Time Bandit, Captain Johnathan's tactic of setting on scallop beds does not pay off. On the Wizard, a pot is lost when the line gets caught in the propeller. The rest of the pots come up empty, forcing Captain Keith to rethink his plans. Captain Derrick & Steve have agreed to set their issues aside and focus on fishing, and the Cornelia Marie finally leaves Dutch Harbor. On the Ramblin' Rose, Captain Elliot is upset when his crew parties all night and leaves a mess for him to clean up. In a meeting in the wheelhouse the other crew members blame Naiuli, and Captain Elliot decides to kick him off the boat. |
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| 92 | 2 | "Proving Grounds" | April 19, 2011 (2011-04-19) |
| The Cornelia Marie and the Ramblin' Rose struggle to catch blue king crab. Engineer Steve Ward questions the skill of Captain Derrick Ray. Captain Elliot Neese discards the fishing advice he received from a friend and moves onto different fishing grounds. On board the Wizard, Captain Keith Colburn moves to a spot last used during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but still can not find the crab. Concerned about his brother being on the stack, Captain Keith orders his brother Monte to take greenhorn Paul Edgren up on top to train him. When the crew grumbles about Paul slowing down the deck, Captain Keith pulls the entire crew from the deck and berates them about not following his orders. The Northwestern gets good numbers from their first string of the season and sets back. Still on the crab, the Seabrooke also sets back. When the Seabrooke's greenhorn Kyle Babb slows down the deck, Captain Scott Campbell shuffles up the assignments and the deck pace picks up. | |||
| 93 | 3 | "Old Age & Treachery" | April 26, 2011 (2011-04-26) |
| The struggles aboard the Cornelia Marie continue with poor numbers of crabs. Josh Harris asks Captain Derrick Ray for assurance that they will find the crab. Egged on by the crew, Jake Harris asks for and receives time at the helm. Then next day, when he asks for a second time at the helm, Captain Derrick Ray tells him no when he believes that he smells marijuana on Jake. Two weeks into the season with low numbers, Captain Keith of the Wizard pulls out all of the superstitions to catch crab in an area called Black Canyon, but the good luck doesn't come and the boat continues to pull in low numbers. Greenhorn Paul Edgren gets caught up in the line of a pot, but the crew saves him from going overboard. Seeing no sign of changing numbers, Captain Keith decides to move to where his partner boat has good fishing. The numbers caught by the Seabrooke drop off, causing Deck Boss Bob Perkey to grip about Captain Scott "JR" Campbell. Junior decides that Bob has to go once they reach port to offload their red crab quota. Bob's son, greenhorn Kyle Babb also voluntarily leaves the boat. Hoping to break their own bad luck, the crew of the Time Bandit fires an AK-47 and AR-15 at a buoy named after former deckhand John Jorgensen who left the boat after the previous season, but their prospect string produces low numbers and the crew move on to a different fishing spot. | |||
| 94 | 4 | "Breaking Point" | May 3, 2011 (2011-05-03) |
| The Seabrooke takes on an enthusiastic new greenhorn before heading off to go blue crab fishing. After two hours of fishing, the greenhorn enters the wheelhouse complaining that he has reached his mental breaking point after being hazed by the rest of the crew. On board the still struggling Cornelia Marie, tensions run high as both captain and crew begin to doubt each other. Josh and Jake Harris confront Captain Derrick Ray about the low numbers and how Derrick is running the boat. After getting a report on incoming weather and fearing dead loss, the Cornelia Marie anchors behind St. Matthew Island to wait on the storm. On board the Kodiak, a broken hydraulic system in the deck crane forces the crew to push pots on deck. Deckhand Jake Jolibois injures his back after slipping on the deck. Jake refuses to come off deck until Captain Bill Wichrowski orders him off deck. The Ramblin' Rose offloads at St. Paul harbor where Captain Elliot Neese expects to offload around 35,000 pounds (16,000 kg) of blue crab, but when the offload is complete, the boat has only delivered 13,000 pounds (5,900 kg). As the Ramblin' Rose heads out for their third trip of the season, Captain Elliot receives email from the boat's owner that they must catch 65,000 pounds (29,000 kg) of crab this trip or be forces to go out on a fourth trip. On the Northwestern, Sig Hansen lets Jake Anderson pick the location of a 52-pot town soak. | |||
| 95 | 5 | "A Wing and a Prayer" | May 10, 2011 (2011-05-10) |
| After offloading 141,000 pounds (64,000 kg) of crab, the Northwestern heads off for their second trip. However, a power failure leaves the boat drifting uncontrollably towards the dock. While the rest of the crew ineffectively scrambles to drop the anchor, Edgar Hansen switches over to the auxiliary engine and restores power to the boat. On board the Wizard, the low numbers of crab makes Captain Keith Colburn feel that there is "bad juju" on board the boat and he orders the crew to sweep the boat for anything out of the ordinary. The crew finds a broken guitar handle belonging to Captain Andy Hillstrand of the Time Bandit that the crew had taken from him during an incident at a bar in town. The crew tosses the handle overboard, but the poor numbers continue. The next day, when Deck Boss Monte Colburn heads inside to take a break, he finds a seagull in the galley. Seagulls are though to be the souls of lost seaman, so the crew takes it as a good sign that their luck as changed. Their luck does change as big numbers of crab finally come over the rail. When Deckhand Lynn Guitard takes wheel watch on the trip in to offload, he falls asleep at the wheel after turning off the watch alarm. The Seabrooke heads out to the blue king crab grounds. Low numbers of crab force the crew to step up the pace, which causes the greenhorn to struggle. He finally pulls himself off the deck when he can no longer deal with the cramps in his hands. On board the Northwestern, Jake Anderson takes the poor results of his town soak string of pots personally. When Jake and Edgar Hansen have a fierce argument, Captain Sig Hansen counsels Jake on how to handle the situation. Still pulling low numbers, Captain Johnathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit heads back to the "slime banks" to fish an area that he did not cover weeks earlier. While the crew is dubious since the "slime banks" had produced low numbers, the gamble pays off and the Time Bandit pulls up good numbers. | |||
| 96 | 6 | "Exit Wounds" | May 17, 2011 (2011-05-17) |
| Captain Keith Colburn of the Wizard catches deckhand Lynn Guitard asleep during the wheel watch. The next day, Lynn apologizes, but Keith tells him that he may never do another wheel watch again, but if he does and falls asleep again, he will be fired immediately. When the Wizard finally offloads after a 15 day trip, Captain Keith sees more dead loss that he would have liked. On the Time Bandit, Captain Johnathan Hillstrand shuts down the deck after heavy seas knock deckhand Mike Fourtner off his feet. Captain Johnathan is worries that the crab bio mass might move while the deck is shut down, but the fears prove unfounded when good numbers are pulled in once the weather clears. On board the Kodiak, Deck Boss Adam McCalden's constant belittling of the crew about working slowly forces Captain Bill Wichrowski to order him off deck. With deckhand Jack Jolibois still down with a back injury, the boat has to work with a three man deck. After offloading 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg) of blue king crab, the Harris brothers tell Captain Derrick Ray that if the Cornelia Marie does not have good numbers with the town soak string that the boat needs to abandon blue king crab fishing and go red king crab fishing. When the string pulls up blanks, the boat heads off to the red crab grounds. However, on the way, the crew decides that they can no longer work under Captain Derrick they decide to end their king crab season. The Seabrooke's big push before heading to offload is made harder when the greenhorn does not come back on deck after quitting. After offloading 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of blue king crab worth $250,000, the boat gets a new greenhorn, Josh "Stroker" Graves, as the previous greenhorn departs. The new greenhorn gets off to an inauspicious start when he becomes seasick a few hours after the boat gets underway. | |||
| 97 | 7 | "Thick as Thieves" | May 24, 2011 (2011-05-24) |
| While steaming to Dutch Harbor, Captain Derrick Ray of the Cornelia Marie, still suspecting that some of the crew are using marijuana, goes on a hunt to find the drugs and finds drug paraphernalia in the engine room. Captain Derrick calls the Unalaska Police Department about his suspicions and asks them to be at the dock when the boat arrives at Dutch Harbor. When Captain Derrick confronts the crew about what he finds, the crew deny that it is theirs. On board the Northwestern, the crab count picks up after Edgar Hansen apologizes to Jake Anderson, easing the tension between them that started after Jake's town soak string pulled up low numbers. The deck of the Kodiak is back to a five-man crew after deckhand Jake Jolibois says he is recovered enough to help on deck and Deck Boss Adam McCalden apologizes to Captain Wichrowski for his treatment of the rest of the crew. However, the five-man deck does not last for long as the short handed work has taken a toll on long time deckhand Eric Anderson's foot and he is ordered off deck. On the Ramblin' Rose, Captain Elliot Neese's pushing of the crew makes crew morale drop. When Deck Boss Kevin "Kado" Davis is injured and weather not improving, Captain Elliot reconsiders his push and shuts down the deck. Back in Dutch Harbor, as soon as the Cornelia Marie pulls up to the dock, Jake Harris jumps off the boat to avoid the police. However, the police catch up to him at Unalaska Airport. When questioned, he denies taking drugs, but refuses to take a drug test. After a search of his person, the police let him go as they have no evidence of drug use. Jake boards a plane and takes off. | |||
| 98 | 8 | "Graduation Day" | May 31, 2011 (2011-05-31) |
| The fleet makes a push towards the end of the season before a storm hits the Bering sea. On the Ramblin' Rose, the crew continues to grumble about Captain Elliot Neese driving them hard. A few talk about not returning next season. However, when the season ends and the deckhands receive their $30,000 share of the 182,000 pounds (83,000 kg) blue crab haul worth $900,000, all four deckhands agree to return. On board the Northwestern, Captain Sig Hansen receives a call from former deckhand Matt Bradley who missed the king crab season due to a drug relapse. Matt asks for his spot back for opilio season. After the crew finishes up the season, Edgar Hansen tells Captain Sig that he will not be returning for the opilio season in January. It is prank time on board the Time Bandit. The first prank is an initiation for deckhand Justin Tennison as he is asked to return for opilio season. The crew rigged up the last pot of the season with flour bombs so that when Justin reels in the pot, flour explodes from the block. The second prank is pulled on Captain Sig of the Northwestern. Several sky lanterns on launched up wind of the Northwestern to spook Captain Sig into thinking he saw a UFO. The season's bad luck on the Wizard continues when five pots of the last string of the season are lost due to heavy currents which pull the buoys underwater. | |||
| 99 | 9 | "Sea Change" | June 7, 2011 (2011-06-07) |
| The 2011 opilio crab season starts with many crew changes: the Hillstrand brother's annual changing of the helm of the Time Bandit with Andy taking over; Travis Lofland formerly of the Wizard and Eddie Uwekoolani, Jr., son of deckhand Eddie Uwekoolani, joins the Time Bandit; Edgar Hansen leaves the Northwestern while Matt Bradley returns and Ken Blakley joins the crew; Freddy Maugatai departs the Cornelia Marie to join the Wizard; and the Cornelia Marie gets a new captain in Tony Lara, a new engineer/deckhand Troy Hulls, and a new deckhand Dale Pruitt. The fleet heads out to sea to try to drop their pots before a large storm hits. The Time Bandit and the Cornelia Marie head to time-tested fishing spots. The Ramblin' Rose is stuck in port undergoing repairs. The fierce storm hits, causing the fleet to suspend operations to wait out the storm. | |||
| 100 | 10 | "Frontier Medicine" | June 14, 2011 (2011-06-14) |
| The arctic storm makes for rough fishing aboard the Northwestern with several stops and starts due to extreme waves. After some deck repairs, the Wizard pulls some pots. Engineer Lenny Lekonoff is knocked to the deck by a wave and suffers a puncture wound to his elbow. Captain Keith Colburn puts in several stitches to Lenny's elbow and Lenny heads back on deck. Injuries also occur on the Time Bandit when a wave drives Mike Fourtner's face into the sorting table. Captain Andy Hillstrand patches him up and Mike goes back on deck. However, fishing stops again when greenhorn Eddie Uwekoolani, Jr. reveals to the Hillstrand brothers that he has been fishing with an abscessed tooth. Not taking any chances, the Time Bandit heads to port in St. Paul to tend to Eddie Jr. Fishing north of the fleet, the Seabrooke fights heavy icing on deck. Captain Scott Campbell, Jr. dumps the top layer of his crab pots overboard in order to prevent the boat from icing over. The remaining pots are nearly frozen solid causing extra work for the crew as they drop them on the fishing grounds. The whole fleet deals with icing on the deck. | |||
| 101 | 11 | "Birds, Bones and Blood" | June 21, 2011 (2011-06-21) |
| An ancient ritual of drinking blood from the cod bait done by Freddy Maugatai and greenhorn Kevin Stafford bring good weather and good fishing to the Wizard. Rough seas makes for rough fishing aboard the Northwestern. Deckhand Nick Mavar, Jr. has his nose broken when he is struck by the picking hook. While trying to anchor up in St. Paul harbor to wait for their turn at the dock, the Time Bandit snaps the line on their anchor, forcing Captain Andy Hillstrand to have to jog the boat for eight hours until their offload time. While the boat is offloading, Eddie Uwekoolani, Jr. goes to the dentist to have two teeth pulled. After the offload is complete, the Time Bandit crew retrieve their anchor from the sea floor. The engine repairs are completed on the Ramblin' Rose. Captain Elliott Neese makes a gamble by setting 100 pots without prospecting, but the gamble does not work and the crew pull up blanks. | |||
| 102 | 12 | "It's Not All Mai-Tais & Yahtzee" | June 28, 2011 (2011-06-28) |
| Concerned about making their delivery date, Captain Tony Lara moves the Cornelia Marie off of 600+ fishing grounds to grounds closer to their processor. However, the move doesn't work out when the new grounds result in low numbers. While picking up "survival" pots dumped overboard ahead of the storm, deckhand Chris "Whipper" Welch of the Seabrooke is hit by a chunk of ice that falls from the deck crane. The Northwestern fishes their last strings ahead of a scheduled offload. The flu spreads among the crew of the Kodiak. A free-swinging pot causes a tense and dangerous moment for the crew. The Wizard offloads 312,000 pounds (142,000 kg) of crab at Dutch Harbor worth $615,000. Deckhand Lynn Guitard receives a reprimand from Captain Keith Colburn after Lynn does a poor job tying down the stack on the deck. After the dismal numbers from the "survival" string and two prospect strings, the Seabrooke is finally on the crab with the third prospect string. | |||
| 103 | 13 | "Pirate School" | July 5, 2011 (2011-07-05) |
| Grinding through low numbers, Captain Tony Lara of the Cornelia Marie uses a mistake by deckhand Ryan Simpson, who had failed to inform the captain when bait was running low, as a teaching experience for Josh Harris. After moving to a new fishing spot, the boat is once again on the crab. On the Ramblin' Rose, the pots are pulling in great numbers. Captain Elliot Neese thinks he has thrown a propeller, but when he checks again, he discovers that he has only sheared the control line from the throttle in the wheelhouse to the gearbox. On the Time Bandit, a pot that nearly breaks lose from the dogs gives the crew a scare. Johnathan Hillstrand decides that Eddie Uwekoolani, Jr. should learn how to cuss like a sailor, but Eddie Jr. doesn't take the bait. On the Wizard, Captain Keith Colburn thinks greenhorn Daniel Maki has a bad attitude and was slacking on deck after working an extra long shift. When Daniel is told he can come off deck, instead of racking out, he heads back on deck to prove to Captain Keith that he was not slacking. While fishing good numbers, deckhand Chris "Whipper" Welch of the Seabrooke calls home to talk to his wife. Whipper thinks he has to go home to take care of family issues. He complains to Captain Scott "Junior" Campbell that the stomach injury he suffered during king crab season flared up. Captain Junior and the crew show him little sympathy. Captain Junior thinks Whipper may be using the injury as an excuse to go home. | |||
| 104 | 14 | "The Island" | July 12, 2011 (2011-07-12) |
| Big swells in St. Paul harbor make for a difficult offload for the Wizard. Lines break and the boat rocks until Captain Keith Colburn borrows heavy lines from the crab processor. When the offload is complete, the Wizard has delivered 424,000 pounds (192,000 kg) of crab worth $882,000. Grinding ahead of their scheduled offload, Captain Sig Hansen on the Northwestern gets frustrated at deckhand Matt Bradley repeatedly missing when throwing the hook and replaces him with Jake Anderson on the rail. On the run in to offload, exhaustion catches up with Captain Sig calls for Jake to relieve him at the wheel. Captain Sig lets Jake take the boat into the docking at St. Paul. On the Seabrooke, Captain Scott Campbell pushes his brother Chris "Whipper" Welch into finally admitting that he has an issue at home that he needs to take care of. Whipper departs the Seabrooke when the boat offloads. On the Kodiak, Deck Boss Adam McCalden fails to inform Captain Bill Wichrowski until the string is over that half way through the string, the crab caught were "dirty" with barnacles. The oversight makes Captain Bill question if Adam has what it takes to advance and run the boat. | |||
| 105 | 15 | "I Smell a Nightmare" | July 19, 2011 (2011-07-19) |
| The fleet makes a big push to finish the season ahead of a large storm. On board the Time Bandit, lack of sleep causes tempers to flare between deckhands Mike Fourtner and Justin Tennison. A line jumps out the block and over Mike Fourtner and Scott Hillstrand. Quick reactions in jumping over the line prevent the line from dragging the two overboard. While fishing their last string of the season, the compressor motor that runs the hydraulics on the Ramblin' Rose overheats and fails. Captain Elliot Neese patches together a fix with a compressor used to fill the buoys. The crew races to retrieve the last 200 pots before the patched together hydraulics fails. On the Cornelia Marie, Captain Tony Lara swaps positions with deckhand Jake Harris while retrieving a string to give Jake more experience at the helm. Captain Tony tears his right bicep muscle while loading a shot into a crab pot and heads off deck. Captain Tony lets Josh set his first string ever. On a 48 hour push with low numbers of crab, Captain Scott Campbell of the Seabrooke succumbs to the pain of a passing kidney stone and leaves the wheelhouse. On board the Wizard, pots with low number crab due to sand fleas eating the bait frustrate Captain Keith Colburn and he takes it out on Bradley Carper, a cameraman for the series. | |||
| 106 | 16 | "Mohawks & Madness, Goodness & Gladness" | July 26, 2011 (2011-07-26) |
| After a long grind with low numbers, the crew of the Wizard shave their hair into mohawks at the urging of deckhand Freddie Maughtai in order to break the boat's bad luck. The boat's luck changes when the "mohawk" string pulls in full pots. On the Cornelia Marie, the string set by Josh Harris pulls in great numbers and the boat heads in for the season. Captain Scott Campbell of the Seabrooke passes the kidney stone that had waylaid him and resumes the helm for the final string of the season. Captain Bill Wichrowski of the Kodiak lets Deck Boss Adam McCalden take the boat into Dutch Harbor. The Northwestern races to finish the season ahead of a storm. Captain Sig Hansen puts Jake Andersen in charge of stacking the deck. After a shaky start, Jake finishes the task and gains the respect of the crew. In revenge for the sky lantern practical joke done by the Time Bandit, Captain Sig lures Captain Andy Hillstrand into taking the Time Bandit in close to the Northwestern to investigate a possible vibration at the stern of the Northwestern. When the Time Bandit approaches, the crew of the Northwestern unleash a volley of fireworks on the Time Bandit. The Time Bandit crew "return fire" with their own fireworks. | |||
| 107 | 17 | "Behind the Scenes: Season 7" | July 26, 2011 (2011-07-26) |
| Behind the scenes on the making of season 7. | |||
| 108 | 18 | "Best of Season 7" | April 3, 2012 (2012-04-03) |
| Recap of the seventh season |
Read more about this topic: List Of Deadliest Catch Episodes
Famous quotes containing the word season:
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