'Deadliest Catch' Season 14, Episode 15 recap: A super moon puts lives in danger as a crewman goes overboard

The Brenna A braves choppy waters. (Discovery Communications)

With a super moon affecting weather, waves and fortunes on the Bering Sea, the captains of “The Deadliest Catch” had to prove their mettle in the worst conditions imaginable - and not everyone made it out unscathed in Season 14, Episode 15 of the Discovery Channel series.

The episode opens with the calm before the storm. All the captains know that the waves are about to double in size, but they have to weigh the danger against their respective quotas. Sig Hansen is the first to say that no captain knows for sure how such an unprecedented natural event will affect fishing. This gives him an opportunity to try and set pots and rake in big numbers as the waves cause the crab to migrate.

He’s not raking in good numbers, and the bad luck gets worse when his crew discovers an oil leak. Luckily, they both caught it and acted quickly so it’s not a crippling failure. However, they’re going into rough seas with a band-aided boat.  Unfortunately, as things get treacherous and the captain realizes that his gambit isn’t going to pay off, he does the smart thing and abandons high numbers in favor of the safety of his crew. As it is, the trip back to port is going to be difficult enough.

Aboard the Saga, captain Jake Anderson is learning a similar lesson. He’s navigating his ship well and his crew is in good spirits. However, the crab aren’t coming. His pots are filled, but with unusable females and infant crab. They keep on trucking until a rogue wave comes out of nowhere and takes the entire deck crew off their feet. The impact even knocked over some 150 pound equipment. The call was too close and the first-time captain decides to inadvertently follow in his mentor’s footsteps and bring the men in. Fishing will have to wait until morning.

Meanwhile, captain Wild Bill is having a much better time than his cohorts. Having risked it all to go deep into the Bering Sea, he’s pulling up pots and catching up on his quota after a mechanical malfunction put him several days behind schedule. His boat is doing some of the best fishing in the fleet, but it comes at a price.

The episode ends with a celebratory crew losing out to mother nature. As a crew member struggles to get a line together, a sudden dip in the waves pulls him overboard. Just like that, the once celebratory crew and captain are in full panic mode as they scramble to bring one of their own out of some of the most treacherous seas in history.

With the Coast Guard having to abandon missions due to the inclement weather, it’s unclear how the crewman will fare or if Wild Bill and his men will be able to pull him back aboard before it’s too late.