Wicked Tuna: Maine captains debut on bluefin tuna reality show this week

Filming for season 9 of National Geographic’s “Wicked Tuna” kicked off at midnight on July 20, 2019. But fans will get a first glimpse at the season’s winner — the captain who reels in the highest overall ex-vessel value — on Sunday, March 1, at 9 p.m. Eastern.

FV-Tuna’s Dave Carraro won season 8 with 19 tunas worth $120,318.

Tyler McLaughlin on the Pinwheel took season 7, also with 19 fish, at $103,936 — winning by a margin of $575.

This season there’s fresh blood in the water, including two fishermen from Saco, Maine.

Filmed on location out of Gloucester, Mass., “Wicked Tuna” follows a group of rod-and-reel bluefin tuna fishermen from the nation’s oldest seaport as they make their living one catch at a time. The series gives viewers an in-depth look at some intense battles, fierce competition, crushing losses, major paydays and of course on-the-water drama courtesy of some of the country’s most fiery commercial fishing captains.

This season, some new fishermen have arrived in Gloucester to stake their claim, and the veteran fleet is challenged like never before.

Zack Plante and Charles Boivin will co-captain the F/V Wasabi, a 35-foot 1981 Bruno out of Saco, Maine.

Plante, 28, only has three seasons of commercial bluefin fishing under his belt. But he has proven to be a natural, putting 16 fish on deck last year. Plante credits tuna fishing with changing his life after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed six years ago. With hard work, he was back on his feet in six months but left unable to work at his previous job.

Boivin, a construction worker in the off-season, loves being out on the water, and hopes to get good enough to fish commercially year-round. After Plante’s accident, Boivin invited him out bluefin tuna fishing. Plante was hooked with his first fish. He is now a full-time commercial fisherman.

Plante says the Gloucester fleet will not expect much from a Maine boat, which he plans to work to their advantage. By flying under the radar, Plante believes the Wasabi will shock the fleet.

The F/V Kraken out of Seabrook, N.H., will feature a brother and sister duo, Samuel Law and Carrie Law-Jones. Their grandfather was a harpoon tuna fisherman out of York, Maine.

Law graduated from the Maine Maritime Academy and worked commercial marine jobs for seven years, hauling jet fuel in 600-foot tankers to Alaska, the West Coast and Hawaii, according to the Portsmouth Herald. But the family fishing roots pulled him back to the local docks.

Law-Jones owns Mojo’s BBQ Grill and Tavern in Portsmouth with her husband, Aaron Jones, and is the one who signed her brother up for the casting call.

The charter boat Fat Tuna out of Beverly, Mass., will be the third new boat this season.