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(Silver Spring, MD) - In Alaska, fishing is a full-contact sport, and on Thursday, January 8, at 10 PM ET/PT, prepare for war on the water. Animal Planet's eight-part series ALASKA: BATTLE ON THE BAY submerges viewers within a high-stakes fishing drama as 1,800 captains and their crews draw the battle lines to help protect Alaska's ecosystem from the 44 million strong sockeye salmon migration and reel in a massive payday.

On the bay, the arm of the law is long, tempers are short and every single decision is the difference between drawing a huge income and settling for pennies. The series opens just days before the annual migration of more than 44 million sockeye salmon in Alaska's Bristol Bay and closely follows five captains and their ships. This BATTLE ON THE BAY comes with several tough challenges:  all 1,800 boats must fight the elements and each other within highly policed areas of water "districts" during a tight four-week fishing season. It's environmentally necessary to fish for the almost half a billion dollars worth of salmon since they may wreak havoc on Alaska's waterways, so fish and game dictates very stringent times and boundaries for fishing and utilizes recon helicopters and police squads to monitor the quantity of the fish hauled out. But, the police presence does nothing to deter fishing boats from becoming battering rams and crashing into one another for prime position. 

With loads of potential fortune swimming just below the surface, the crews know the unpredictable and dangerous bay is the least of their worries. Each boat also must prepare for whatever its desperate and money-hungry competition may have in store while it keeps an eye on the legal fishing line. Crossing over it by even a few feet results in a steep fine that may maroon an entire season.

This season, join five of the most dedicated captains and crews who best represent the 1,800 vessels that angle for prime position during this BATTLE ON THE BAY:

• Capt. Taran White (The Thunder) is a young brash Bristol Bay native with the fastest and most expensive boat on the water.

• Capt. Luke Swab (The Jimmy Jeff) is a Detroit city boy with a slow-moving fixer-upper vessel and the laid-back personality to match.

• Capt. Vince Hoiby (The Jesse N) is a long-time veteran with the patience and knowledge to hit it big on the bay.

• Capt. Tom Walsh (The Intruder) is a fiery Irishman with a greenhorn crew. He knows time is money, so does he have the patience to teach his inexperienced deckhands?

• Capt. Leonard Ferrigno (The Deborah Renee) is a family man with his sons on board. But that won't stop him from using his boat as a battering ram to get what he wants.

In the most competitive fishery on Earth, which Captain can keep his crew afloat and capitalize on the salmon gold rush in Alaska?

ALASKA: BATTLE ON THE BAY is produced for Animal Planet by Trooper Entertainment, in Association with Lionsgate Television and Watson Pond Productions. Dave Caplan and Brad Johnson are executive producers. Jordan Moss is co-executive producer. Keith Hoffman is the executive producer and Pat Dempsey is the associate producer for Animal Planet. Andy Berg and Jordan Hall developed the show for Animal Planet.

About Animal Planet

Animal Planet, a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. Animal Planet consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 94 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; Animal Planet L!VE, the go-to digital destination for round-the-clock, unfiltered access to the animal kingdom; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, and merchandising extensions.

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