Whether it's chain smoking their way into a severe heart attack, or surviving twin rogue waves almost washing them away, the fisherman of Deadliest Catch have endured some incredibly harrowing moments.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Whether it's chain-smoking their way into a severe heart attack or surviving twin rogue
00:05waves almost washing them away, the fishermen of Deadliest Catch have endured some incredibly
00:11harrowing moments. The rough and challenging waters of the Bering Sea can even extend into
00:17the cannery harbors to which the crabbers deliver their product.
00:21During the Season 17 episode, The Ultimate Price, the Summer Bay had to deal with one
00:26of the worst harbors in the entire sea. It is near the end of the season, and the Summer
00:31Bay is headed for one of the few canneries still open, though this one is notorious for
00:36having an incredibly dangerous harbor. Captain Wild Bill Wittrowski tries to maneuver his
00:42vessel into the port, but he gets caught in the surf zone, and the massive swells keep
00:47turning his boat around, prompting the captain to call his crew inside.
00:51At multiple points, the Summer Bay is almost completely submerged, with one giant wave
00:57just about flipping the vessel upside down and pouring water into the wheelhouse. The
01:02captain later remarked that it was one of the closest calls of his career, and even
01:06the camera crew profusely thanked him for saving their lives.
01:10It was a harrowing ending to a season that had already seen tragedy strike the crew of
01:15the Summer Bay, with the ship's 33-year-old deck boss, Nick McLachlan, dying in December
01:212020.
01:22In every episode of Deadliest Catch, crab-fishing vessels have to travel to the most remote
01:27parts of the Bering Sea in order to catch crab. While this allows them access to some
01:32of the freshest and best-tasting seafood, it also leaves them totally cut off from hospitals
01:37and doctors, sometimes by hundreds of miles. While crews will typically have at least one
01:43medically certified individual on board, these professionals are pretty limited in
01:47what they can do.
01:49During the Season 9 finale episode, The Final Battle, deckhand Brandon Hymie gets several
01:55of his fingers caught in a bait chopper while at sea. With Hymie bleeding heavily, with
02:00no medical facilities on the ship, the captain calls in the Coast Guard for an airlift rescue.
02:06However, the weather is so poor at first that the Coast Guard is initially unable to rescue
02:10the injured crewman. The Coast Guard has to wait for a break in the storm to finally airlift
02:15Hymie off the boat, taking him to the closest hospital where he's briefly treated before
02:20being flown to a specialist on the mainland.
02:23For many fishermen, the season does not end until they can finally return to their home
02:28and get a good night's sleep in their own bed. As Deadliest Catch star Captain Sig Hansen
02:33showed in the Season 12 finale, even heading back to port can be deadly, as the Northwestern
02:39is ending its season. Hansen starts to experience serious chest and arm pains. He is unsure
02:44of exactly what is going on, even after the camera crew starts to notice he is experiencing
02:49discomfort, and he goes so far as to claim that he isn't dying.
02:54Hansen is immediately rushed to the hospital when the Northwestern makes it to port, and
02:58his doctor reveals the terrifying truth. Hansen wasn't experiencing just any heart attack,
03:04but one commonly known as a widowmaker. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it's called the widowmaker
03:10due to its fast fatal potential, as 50 percent of the heart's blood supply is immediately
03:15compromised. Hansen was incredibly lucky that his heart attack happened when he was already
03:19headed to port, or things could have ended much worse. His doctor made it clear how close
03:25he came to dying.
03:27Going overboard on Deadliest Catch doesn't only include the risk of getting crushed by
03:31the boat, but drowning, getting attacked by animals, and succumbing to hypothermia.
03:37During the appropriately titled Season 14 episode, Greenhorn Overboard, Summer Bay Greenhorn's
03:43Spencer Moore is working hard to pull in some buoys during a severe storm, when one of them
03:48pulls Moore overboard and into the Bering Sea. While the crew manages to pull Moore
03:53on board and save his life, he spends several moments in the freezing waters as they struggle
03:58to pull him up. This shock to his system renders Moore motionless after getting backed
04:03on the deck, though he does eventually manage to make his way inside. He profusely thanks
04:09his shipmates for saving his life and seems to be physically okay, but it's hard to imagine
04:14just how terrifying the moment was, with Moore being incredibly lucky that his crewmates
04:19were able to act so quickly and efficiently.
04:23In order for fishermen to do their jobs, with most Deadliest Catch crews only consisting
04:28of four deckhands, they have to utilize a lot of hydraulic and mechanized equipment
04:33to catch, sort, and store thousands of pounds of crab. Most of the time, the equipment helps
04:39the crabbers accomplish their job much more easily, but that's not always the case. During
04:45the Season 10 episode, Blonde Ambition, a moving hydraulic table traps wizard deckhand
04:51Roger Schlostein between the pot and the table. Immediately, Schlostein starts screaming,
04:57collapsing to the deck as soon as the table moves away. His back injury appears so severe
05:02that Keith Colburn, the wizard's captain, comes down to check on him. Without immediate
05:07access to a hospital, Schlostein is forced to get by with only rudimentary pain meds.
05:13The label Greenhorn on Deadliest Catch is meant for the rookie deckhands who are in
05:18their first season of crab fishing. Greenhorns can be young or old, and they can be subjected
05:23to some pretty severe ridicule from the rest of the crew, veteran crabbers who have been
05:27in the industry for years or even decades, while they have to learn the dangerous and
05:32demanding ropes of crab fishing. During the Season 10 episode, Skipper Harris in Training,
05:38Greenhorn Miles Johnson learns just how dangerous life at sea can be while working on the Cape
05:43Caution. As he's hauling in full crab pots at night, he takes an unexpected hit directly
05:49into his face. Johnson is knocked over, his face a bloody mess. Luckily, one of the other
05:55crew members is also a registered EMT, and he is able to dispense some quick care to
06:00stop the bleeding. However, Captain Wild Bill was still worried about the possibility of
06:05a concussion, so he had Johnson monitored throughout the night. Thankfully, Johnson
06:10only suffered a broken nose.
06:13On Deadliest Catch, things can go from bad to worse very quickly, such as a horrifying
06:18bout of dehydration suffered by Wizard Greenhorn Chris Scambler during Season 8. Complaining
06:24about a pain in his arm and numbness in his face, Scambler manages to walk off the deck,
06:30but collapses, seeing double. As Scambler's body starts to completely shut down, his heart
06:36rate skyrockets while his blood pressure drops. Captain Colburn's quick thinking leads to
06:41a dramatic mid-sea rescue by the Coast Guard, who in all likelihood saved Scambler's life.
06:47Colburn and his crew were rattled by the incident, and Scambler was unable to continue on the
06:51vessel for the remainder of the season. It was one of the show's most intense moments,
06:56serving as a serious reminder about how dangerous fishing can be in the Bering Sea.
07:01Getting the Coast Guard involved for an at-sea rescue happens more often than many might think,
07:06especially if you are a crew member on Deadliest Catch. Unfortunately, in the Season 18 episode
07:12Crushed at Sea, the crew of the Patricia Lee find themselves crabbing during a severe storm,
07:18when deckhand Francis Catungan gets crushed between two massive crab pots. This severely
07:24injures Catungan's back and puts him in immense pain. Worse yet, the Patricia Lee is far out
07:30at sea and out of the Coast Guard's 100-mile rescue zone. To save Catungan's life, Captain
07:36Rip Carlton races through the storm to get to the outer edge of the rescue zone so the
07:41Coast Guard can pick him up. Once the medivac team safely makes it aboard, they have to
07:46deal with the delicate issue of Catungan's back, which they cannot risk abruptly moving.
07:51When he's finally secured, the Coast Guard is able to lift Catungan off the Patricia
07:56Lee. While Catungan survived his injuries, his career as a crabber may be over.
08:02One of the most important roles of any ship captain sailing through the Bering Sea is
08:06to be attentive and alert. During the Season 3 episode Cheating Death, the Time Bandit
08:12is sailing through rough seas when Captain Hillstrand notices one of the deckhands of
08:17a nearby fishing vessel, Josh White, is in a very precarious situation on the side of
08:22the ship trying to secure the crab pots. But the moment after Hillstrand loses track of
08:27White, he instantly realizes that White has fallen overboard. The Time Bandit is able
08:32to pull the drowning White out of the ocean. While he's deep in the early stages of hypothermia,
08:39the crew immediately replaces his soaking wet clothes with a thick, warm blanket. White
08:44starts thanking and hugging Hillstrand almost as soon as he sees him.
08:48Though it came fairly early in the series, this became one of the show's defining moments.
08:53It showcased the danger and peril which these commercial fishermen experience on a daily
08:58basis. And luckily, it finishes with a happy ending.
09:02Since the Bering Sea is massive, most vessels find themselves largely alone when out fishing.
09:08Occasionally, ships will see rival fishermen or other vessels in the same area, but it
09:13definitely isn't the norm. That made the collision in the Season 17 episode Russian Dragger especially
09:20alarming. The wizard is steaming along when another boat cuts in front of them. Unable
09:25to stop or maneuver out of the way, Captain Colburn frantically screams over the radio
09:30for the other ship to move. But his pleas are to no avail, and the wizard plows into
09:36the other boat, risking the lives of both ships' crews.
09:40Thankfully, the wizard's anchor acted as a crumple zone for the ship and absorbed the
09:44brunt of the impact between the two vessels. When the crew determines that the ship is
09:49structurally sound, both vessels manage to sail away from the incident.
09:54When Jake Anderson takes over for Elliot Neese as the captain of the Saga, things don't quite
09:59get off to the best start. During his first voyage in charge, in the Season 11 episode
10:04Five-Year Storm, the Saga runs into some rough weather that produces violent waves up to
10:1040 feet tall. At a particularly intense moment, two massive waves plunge the deck underwater
10:17and send the deck crew swimming. The crew members could have easily slid into a piece
10:22of heavy equipment and been severely injured, or even be swept right off the deck into the
10:27freezing ocean. The Saga itself nearly capsizes from the impact, but control of the vessel
10:33is regained before anyone gets hurt. However, this doesn't stop the crew from being more
10:38than a little upset over what happened.
10:41Relief captain Ray Flershinger claimed that the waves were rogue and he had no way to
10:45avoid them or adequately warn the crew. In the end, while no one was seriously injured
10:50physically, it was a less-than-auspicious start for Anderson's captaincy.
10:55Imagine for a moment that you are crab fishing on the Bering Sea. It's late at night, and
11:00the temperatures are sub-zero. Suddenly, you lose all power and the ship is plunged into
11:05darkness. To make things worse, a fire breaks out in the engine room and your electrical
11:10system is completely fried. That's exactly the situation Captain Sig Hansen and the Northwestern
11:16found themselves in during Season 12's Fire at Sea.
11:21The fire occurs in the middle of the crew hauling in pots full of crab, and it brings
11:25the entire operation to a standstill. After the crew puts the fire out, they realize the
11:31electrical system is severely damaged. This puts the lives of the crew and thousands of
11:36pounds of crab at risk, as the pumps on the Northwestern are controlled electronically.
11:41With the crew nearly 200 miles away from any landmass, this incident could have been
11:46fatal. Luckily, they're able to get their four-cylinder engine working, saving the day
11:52and the crab, getting the Northwestern home safely.