That sucks, god rest their souls! It's a shame they still have to go out there in the dead of winter. It's like the government leading the lambs to slaughter. The season is only a few weeks and they can catch those crabs on the shelves year round~!
I fished the same crab season out there for 4 years back in the 90's, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. They were out fishing for Opillio crab and the season is very short now-- around two weeks I think usually starts on the 15th. When I fished out there we would go out until the boat was filled with 155,000#'s of crab or we were running low on fuel. Our longest trips were around 30 days and the shortest was six days. The season lasted 2-3 months back then.
Every year there would be a boat or two that I knew people on that would go down. It sucked but it was just the way it was. We almost sunk three times out there but it never stopped us from going back.
I guess it is something you'd love or hate-- I loved it and would go back in a heartbeat if I didn't have children, plus you can't beat the $$
I'll post a few pics if I can figure it out....