Saturday's wind split the Bering Sea fleet by boat size

When the wind kicked up to 45 knots over the Bering Sea on Saturday, it appears to have sorted the commercial fleet by size. By one account from the water, the smaller set-net operations shut down while the larger drift boats kept fishing through seas running 7 to 11 feet.

Nothing official was behind it — no closure, no emergency order, just operators making their own calls in rough water. One caveat: the split comes from a citizen's post, not an agency, so the specifics are unconfirmed. The forecast backs up the wind and the seas, but not the poster's other claims about a lingering cold water mass or salmon nearing their spawning grounds.