Yachting Art Magazine

VIDEO - a rogue wave hits a crabbing boat in the Bering Sea

Unless you fish the Bering Sea, you have no idea the stress fishermen undergo there...

During the second season of the TV documentary series "Deadliest Catch" dealing with crab fishing in Alaska's Bering Sea, cameras recorded footage of a giant wave striking the "Aleutian Ballad", a 107' long welded steel crabber tender from  Ketchikan (Alaska), owned by David Lethin and captained by Jerry "Corky" Tilley.

The 18-meter wave rolled the­ boat onto its side, and caused important damage.

Fortunately, none of the crew was seriously hurt, ad the crabbing boat could limp back to port for repairs.

The footage captures the suddenness of the massive wave, and just before the impact sends the camera operator tumbling, the "wall of water" breaking over the boat can be seen with frightening clarity.

Rogue waves or freak waves, are large and spontaneous surface waves that can be very dangerous, because they are unpredictable, rare, and can impact with tremendous force. If modern ships are designed to tolerate a breaking wave of 15 tons / m2, the force of a freaking wave can reach 100 ton s/m2... 

In oceanography, rogue waves are defined as waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height, which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record.

Rogue waves are not necessarily the biggest waves found on the water; they are, rather, unusually large waves for a given sea state. 

VIDEO - a rogue wave hits a crabbing boat in the Bering Sea
VIDEO - a rogue wave hits a crabbing boat in the Bering Sea

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