Plot Synopsis

ALASKA: BATTLE ON THE BAY is a one-hour reality series that follows five dedicated captains and their crews during a four-week fishing season that coincides with the sockeye salmon migration in Alaska's Bristol Bay. On the bay, the arm of the law is long, tempers are short and every single decision is the difference between drawing a huge income and settling for pennies. The series opens just days before the annual migration of more than 44 million sockeye salmon, presenting many challenges. First, all 1,800 boats must fight the elements and each other within highly policed areas of water districts -- partly for money and partly because it's environmentally necessary to fish for almost half a billion salmon. Without this fishing season, the salmon may wreak havoc on Alaska's waterways, so fish and game dictate very stringent times and boundaries for fishing and utilize recon helicopters and police squads to monitor the quantity of the fish hauled out. But, the police presence does nothing to deter fishing boats from becoming battering rams and crashing into one another for prime position. The five featured captains are: Capt. Taran White (The Thunder), a young brash Bristol Bay native with the fastest and most expensive boat on the water; Capt. Luke Swab (The Jimmy Jeff), a Detroit city boy with a slow-moving fixer-upper vessel and a laid-back personality to match; Capt. Vince Hoiby (The Jesse N), a long-time veteran with the patience and knowledge to hit it big on the bay; Capt. Tom Walsh (The Intruder), a fiery Irishman with a greenhorn crew, who must have the patience to teach his inexperienced deckhands; and Capt. Leonard Ferrigno (The Deborah Renee), a family man with his sons on board.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thursday, February 19, 2015 from 5pm-Midnight ET/PT, Animal Planet aired a seven-hour marathon of ALASKA: BATTLE ON THE BAY, including encore episodes (5-9pm) and the world premiere of the final two episodes of Season 1 at 9pm and 10pm. In the season's penultimate episode "The Grind," the crews are beginning to feel the fatigue, as the Bristol Bay Salmon season grinds to a close. Captain Luke and the crew come to the rescue of a fellow captain and save him and his crew from a dangerous boat fire. Then, in the season finale, "Cashing In," the Captains battle for the last fish of the year and try to hit their season goals, as the salmon season comes to an end. Capt. Luke struggles to keep the Jimmy Jeff running long enough for him to hit 100,000 pounds.