Deadliest Catch - Season 8

First aired: 4/10/2012 16 episodes

Episodes

1. The Gamble

Aired: 4/10/2012

A slashed crab quota has captains reeling before the boats hit the water. With the fleet set to fight over half the catch, each skipper is forced to decide: roll the dice on the depleted Red grounds or risk it all to hunt for the elusive Blue crab.

2. Turf War

Aired: 4/17/2012

With the fleet split, a tale of two fisheries emerges. On the Blue grounds, a captains' bet has the boats jockeying for position. On the Red grounds, a returning veteran quickly proves his worth, while another boat copes with a fallen deckhand.

3. Weak Links

Aired: 4/24/2012

As the fleet grinds through injuries and mental mistakes, the Bering Sea exposes soft spots and weak links in each crew. While the skippers wonder which deckhands have the right stuff, the Time Bandit says goodbye to a crewmate who never made it back.

4. The Hook

Aired: 5/1/2012

Halfway through the King crab gauntlet, the beaten-down crews must dig deep to get over the midseason hump. As the crab counts dwindle and the weak fall by the wayside, the skippers give their youngest deckhands a choice: step up or step off.

5. Alien Abduction

Aired: 5/8/2012

Past the halfway point of the King Crab season, man and machine alike show signs of wear under the brutal hand of the Bering Sea. While repairs can be made to the equipment, the fishermen must dig deep to soldier on in a place where nature rules.

6. Vital Signs

Aired: 5/15/2012

As king crab season nears the finish line, the crew of The Wizard faces a life or death situation as a deckhand collapses and struggles to hold on. Catching crab suddenly becomes secondary to a fight for survival on the harsh Bering Sea.

7. I Don't Wanna Die

Aired: 5/22/2012

In a scramble to help their collapsed greenhorn, the Wizard crew calls in a Coast Guard helicopter. For the rest of the fleet, it's a race to haul crab before a hurricane hits, and the last boat fishing waits too long to leave the grounds.

8. The Aftermath

Aired: 5/29/2012

In the aftermath of an arctic hurricane, the fleet struggles to reach the finish line of a brutal king crab season. Poor fishing and quarreling crews make this final push a painful one for every man on the Bering Sea.

9. Nowhere to Go But Down

Aired: 6/5/2012

It's winter in Dutch Harbor and the fleet prepares to hunt Opilio crab. The season looks promising with the quota up and the price high, but tensions rise before the lines are thrown as one deckhand quits, two brothers fight and one goes overboard.

10. Rise and Fall

Aired: 6/12/2012

With unrelenting northerly winds bearing down on the fleet, every skipper steels himself for battle with the descending polar ice pack. And as temperatures drop on the grounds, tempers on deck flare up.

11. No Exit

Aired: 6/19/2012

Across the fleet, captains battle the descending polar ice pack to save their pots, and it's a losing war. The Northwestern and Wizard struggle to escape St. Paul harbor, while the rest of the fleet scrambles to keep their opilio season alive.

12. Collision Course

Aired: 6/26/2012

The polar ice pack invades the opilio crab grounds, forcing the captains to make a decision: grab their gear and run, or keep fishing and fight the floes. Two deckhands fall victim to an ice assault; a captain's troubles are compounded by a call home.

13. Landlocked

Aired: 7/3/2012

The ice pack has a choke hold on the Bering Sea opilio grounds. Nearly iced up, captains across the fleet must make the call to stay or go. Some run from the ice, and others stay to battle the elements for the hope of a record-breaking payday.

14. Fearless Leaders

Aired: 7/10/2012

One of the worst icing events in history recedes making it possible for some of the boats to return. One boat suffers a total blackout while navigating an iceberg minefield, Elliott gets a rude awakening and a greenhorn learns a deadly lesson.

15. Release the Beast

Aired: 7/17/2012

Two brothers find themselves in the same dire situation that sunk their father's boat. After a midseason hiatus, the fleet returns to the Bearing Sea, but the ice is back and worse than before. Now the skippers could get pushed past their breaking points.

16. The Bitter, Bloody End

Aired: 7/24/2012

In this special two-hour close to a merciless opilio season, a veteran deckhand pays for a mistake in flesh. Then in the final hours some men rise and some men fall, but not everyone will make it home.