Into the ice: A crab boat’s quest for snow crab in a Bering Sea upended by climate change

ABOARD THE PINNACLE, Bering Sea — Through the wheelhouse window, Capt. Mark Casto spotted a white line on the horizon. The edge of an ice floe was illuminated by bow lights piercing the morning darkness of the Bering Sea. He throttled back the engines. Soon, the Seattle-based crab boat began to nose through closely packed pancake-like pieces and bigger craggy chunks, some the size of boulders, which bobbed about in the currents and clanged against the hull. Phyllis Stabeno discusses sea ice.