F/V ''Big Valley'' was a

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to fishing, catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals (e.g. shrimps/prawns, krills, coleoids, etc.) in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial ...

. The vessel capsized and sank on January 15, 2005, in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

in an area west of

Saint Paul Island, Alaska St. Paul ( or , ) is a city in the Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska, United States. It is the main settlement of Saint Paul Island in the Pribilof Islands, Pribilofs, a small island group in the Bering Sea. The population was 413 at the 2020 Un ...

. Only one member of the crew survived of the six people on board.

Sinking

The vessel's

Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon station An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or Natural environment, environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to ...

(EPIRB) went off around 8:00am AST (UTC−9), at the beginning of the 2005 opilio crab hunting season. Three fishing vessels (F/V ''Cornelia Marie'', F/V ''Maverick'' and ''Sea Rover''),

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

ship , the Alaska state patrol boat ''Stimson'', and a Coast Guard helicopter out of Saint Paul Island were involved in the search. The helicopter rescued the only crewmember to make it to the

life raft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the m ...

. Two others, who were wearing

survival suit An immersion suit, also known as a survival suit, is a type of waterproof dry suit intended to protect the wearer from hypothermia if immersed in cold water or otherwise exposed after abandoning a vessel, especially in the open ocean. Immersion ...

s like the survivor, were found deceased in the water. One was recovered by the helicopter, and the other was recovered by ''Stimson''. Three others fell into the water without survival suits, and their bodies were never found. According to the survivor's account, two were thrown overboard while trying to release the life raft. One ultimately freed it, but only the survivor made it to the raft after 50 minutes in the water. The survivor was taken to

Kodiak, Alaska Kodiak (Alutiiq language, Alutiiq: ) is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside ...

, and ultimately recovered, gave authorities his account of the event, clearing up details of the night. He reported that there was no icing occurring on the deck and the boat was carrying 50 pots for crab fishing. The

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

had limited the ''Big Valley'', one of the smallest boats that participated in the crab fishery, to carrying 31 crab pots. She left

Dutch Harbor Dutch Harbor is a harbor on Amaknak Island in Unalaska, Alaska. It was the location of the Battle of Dutch Harbor in June, 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked it just seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. To this day, ...

Unalaska, Alaska The City of Unalaska (; ) is the main population center in the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Islan ...

, for her final trip with 55 pots and of bait, more than three times the amount allowed, according to the Coast Guard investigation. That extra weight contributed to her fate, the investigation found.

Popular culture

The search for ''Big Valley'' was covered in an episode of the television show, ''

Deadliest Catch ''Deadliest Catch'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing ...

''. It was ''Big Valley''s captain who demonstrated the EPIRB for the show. The boat was also part of the pilot episode of ''Deadliest Catch'' in 2004. There were no known cameras or production crew on board the boat when it sank in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Valley 2005 in Alaska Fishing ships of the United States Maritime incidents in 2005 Shipwrecks of the Alaska coast Ships built in Mobile, Alabama Deadliest Catch