The '' F/V Big Valley'' was a 92-foot (28 m) crabber boat. The vessel capsized and sank Saturday, January 15, 2005, in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

in an area west of

Saint Paul Island, Alaska Saint Paul Island (russian: Остров Святого Павла, Ostrov Svyatogo Pavla) is the largest of the Pribilof Islands, a group of four Alaskan volcanic islands located in the Bering Sea between the United States and Russia. The city o ...

. Only one member of the crew survived: Cache Seel, 30. Skipper Gary Edwards, 46, of

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

; Danny Vermeersch, 33 of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

; Josias Luna, 48, of

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

; Aaron Marrs, 27, of

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

; and Carlos Rivera, 35, of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

all perished. The vessel's

Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon station An Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) is a type of emergency locator beacon for commercial and recreational boats, a portable, battery-powered radio transmitter used in emergencies to locate boaters in distress and in need of i ...

(EPIRB) went off around 8:00am AST (UTC−9), at the beginning of the 2005

opilio crab ''Chionoecetes opilio'', a species of snow crab, also known as opilio crab or opies, is a predominantly epifaunal crustacean native to shelf depths in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and north Pacific Ocean. It is a well-known commercial species of ...

hunting season. Three fishing vessels (''F/V Cornelia Marie'', ''F/V Maverick'' and ''Sea Rover''),

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

ship '' USCGC Sherman'', the Alaska state patrol boat ''Stimson'', and a Coast Guard helicopter out of Saint Paul Island were involved in the search. The helicopter rescued Cache Seel, who was 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 (raft, liferafts) are also used. In t ...

. Vermeersch and Rivera, who were wearing

survival suit A survival suit, more accurately and currently referred to as an immersion 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, especiall ...

s like Seel, were found deceased in the water. Vermeersch was recovered by the helicopter, and Rivera was recovered by ''Stimson''. Edwards, Luna and Marrs fell into the water without survival suits, and their bodies were never found. According to Seel's account, Edwards and Luna were thrown overboard while trying to release the life raft. Vermeersch ultimately freed it, but only Seel made it to the raft after 50 minutes in the water. The

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a 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 customs and security duties to ...

had limited the ''F/V Big Valley'', one of the smallest boats that participated in the crab fishery, to carrying 31

crab pot Crab traps are used to bait, lure, and catch crabs for commercial or recreational use. Crabbing or crab fishing is the recreational hobby and commercial occupation of fishing for crabs. Different types of traps are used depending on the type o ...

s. 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, and was one of the few sites in the United States to be subjected to aerial bombardment by a foreign power during Worl ...

Unalaska, Alaska Unalaska ( ale, Iluulux̂; russian: Уналашка) is the chief center of population 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 ...

, for her final trip with 55 pots and 13,000 pounds 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. The search for ''F/V Big Valley'' was covered in an episode of the television show, ''

Deadliest Catch ''Deadliest Catch'' is a 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 seasons. The ...

''. It was ''F/V Big Valley'''s captain, Gary Edwards, 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 onboard the boat when it sank in 2005.

Survivor

Seel, who was taken to

, 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.''Kodiak Daily Mirror'': "Spokesman of survivor gives details of Big Valley tragedy"
published on Tuesday, January 18, 2005, By Jan Danelski

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