- i'm coyote peterson, and i'm about toenter the pinch zone with the dungeness crab. ready? one. two. here we go. three. (screaming)
(epic orchestral music) as the sun breaksthrough the clouds and shines down upon my face, there are two things on my mind. the first, is that alaska'sabsolutely breathtaking. the second, is that in justa couple minutes, i will be pinched by agiant dungeness crab. wait, what?
yup, you heard meright, pinched, by a giant crab. today we're in haines, alaska, and our first stop is the dock. so if you wanna get pinchedby a dungeness crab, you gotta have the crab first. and i can't dive down to the bottom of theocean to catch one, so today we're heading tothe harbor so i can buy one.
dungeness crabslive in deep water, and are usually caughtusing crab pots. so for us to makethis episode work, we actually have to buy a crab. - got one. - there ya go. that looks like it'll dothe trick right there. that's a pretty bigset of pinchers. i think we all knowwhat's gonna happen next.
oh boy. the good news for the crab, who i have endearinglynamed roscoe, is that after i am pinched, he is going to be releasedback into the wild. alright, well, i've got my crab. now we're just gonnatake it to a good spot that we can filmme getting pinched. you know, the entiretime i was hoping
that this fisherman would nevercome back with these crabs. now we have one, and my pointer fingeris gonna feel the power of that claw pinch. i'm obviously prettynervous right now it's gonna break my finger. they have these huge, teethlooking nodules on their claws. i didn't know they hadthose until i saw 'em. kinda having secondthoughts about this.
dwelling primarilyin eelgrass beds, the dungeness crab gets its name from the town ofdungeness, washington. it's one of the largestcrab species in this region, and it's armed with aset of powerful claws that would even makea lobster jealous. i know what you were thinking, "coyote, why are yougoing to do this?" and the answer is simple,
to find out just how powerfulthese crabs really are. can they break a human finger? we're about to find out. - [voiceover] alright, coyote, so does the crab seembigger in person? or is this as big asyou thought it would be? - yeah, actually i'venever really seen a full grown dungeness crab. i did picture somethinga bit smaller in my head.
he's down there inthe water right now, we just have waterflowing through his gills. we're actually allowinghim to power up, if i dare say, power up, to make this pinch alittle more extreme. grumpy ol' roscoe, getting ready to do a number onmy pointer finger. oh boy, this is gonna be bad. the pinch of any crab species
has the potentialto be very painful. and if the crab, like this one, is big enough there is a chance it couldactually break a finger. this is it. this is for science, here we go. bringing it up. he looks grumpy.
in the past i've been pinched by several species of crab. remember the purple shore crab? that one hurt. you look at this crab and you're probablythinking to yourself "coyote, that one'slike 10 times the size." yeah, it is. and take a look at those claws.
they're armed withlittle, serrated teeth. now what i'm gonna do today is put my pointer fingerinto one of those claws to see just how powerfulthat pinch really is. i have a feeling that this is going to hurt. as long as it doesn'tbreak my finger, i'm going to let this crabpinch me for 60 seconds. never attempt to replicate
what you are about to witness. i'm coyote peterson, ready?- [voiceover] let's do it. - one. (agonized screaming) wow, that's pretty bad! can you see that? he's got my wholefinger locked in there. it's like, right on the joint.
oh my gosh, those teeth are definitelyjust digging into my finger. oh my gosh! oh my gosh, thathurts so much more than i thought it was going to. (grunting) these crabs actually use their pinchers for defense
and also to catch their food. hold on, absorb the pain. i gotta try and getmy finger out, man. it's crushing my finger. hold on, let me putit down on the ground. (heavy breathing) (yelling) oh that hurt. man, look at all those dents.
(grunts) it hurt. that was like having your finger into a set a vice grips. man! that was worth it. for science. (pained yelling) holy cow.
i'm a actually a little nervousthat he may have... stress fractured the bone. look at my finger, you see the crush marks? it's actually the the pinches of the, the teeth that ithink hurt the worst, 'cause i could feel thosedigging down into the bone.
roscoe, you little, you little bugger. wow! i can now say without a doubt that the pinch ofthe dungeness crab. (groaning) oh, wow, that's pretty bad. is by far the worsti've ever experienced.
i can only imagine howbad the pinch is gonna be from a maine lobster. be brave, stay wild, we'll see you onthe next adventure. alright, roscoe, let's getyou back off into the ocean. as i placed roscoe intothe murky ocean waters, i am pretty sure that i sawa little smile on his face just before he disappearedinto the unknown.
cool. well, there he goes. roscoe is back offinto the ocean, and i still have my finger. awesome. as for my finger, it was sore for a week, but completely freeof any real damage. if you thought thiscrab pinch was wild,
make sure to go backand watch my encounter with the most venomousreptile i have ever captured, the yellow-bellied sea snake. and don't forget, subscribe to the bravewilderness channel so you can join me and the crew on this season ofbeyond the tide.
