Being an Alaskan crab fisherman is one of the most dangerous, high-stakes jobs in the world. Being a reality TV star, while certainly not as physically demanding, has its own share of pressures. Since 2005, the hit Discovery series “Deadliest Catch” has combined these two worlds, turning fishing vessels like the Cornelia Marie and the Wizard into stages where grand dramas play out, and making unlikely celebrities out of the brine-soaked men who work their bodies to death for an ever-depleting resource. Colorful captains like Phil Harris, Sig Hansen, and Bill Wichrowski trawl the Bering Sea twice a year during king crab season and snow crab season, while the first mates, deckhands, and greenhorns under them have their own stories, ambitions, and conflicts.

Another similarity between crab fishing and reality TV stardom is that it is not for everyone. Turnover is frequent between seasons, and those fishermen who stay on one year after another are often plagued with physical and mental health issues. Drug and alcohol addiction is famously rampant in the industry, and a good many cast members have faced legal woes over the years as a result. Fishermen who have left the show have done so for many reasons. Some have left the industry entirely, some were let go by the show’s production company, and others have had their reality TV fame replaced by infamy and jail time. Let’s take a look at what some of the most notable former cast members of “Deadliest Catch” are up to now.

Scott Campbell Jr.

Scott Campbell Jr. joined the show in Season 7 as captain of the F/V Seabrooke. The son of a fishing family, “Junior” was determined to make his mark both on the sea and on the series, and his enthusiasm for the work was a breath of fresh air. Sadly, health issues derailed his plans, as chronic back pain made both the physical aspects of the job like fighting for your life on the open seas and the more sedentary ones like sitting for long hours in the cramped wheelhouse all but impossible. Campbell left the show after Season 10 but returned several years later for Seasons 16 and 17, first on the Seabrooke and then aboard a new vessel, the F/V Lady Alaska.

During his time ashore, Campbell went into business for himself, serving as owner and CEO of Cordova Coolers (now Cordova Outdoors), an Idaho-based company that manufactures high-end coolers, drinkware, and accessories. He stepped down from that position in 2018, and in 2023 he began a new venture, Beaver Creek Firewood (motto: “Everyone likes a little wood every now and then”).

Mike Fourtner

The fishing life requires a lot of a person: tremendous and constant physical exertion, a willingness (even excitement) to look death in the face on a daily basis, and a brine stench that probably never really goes away. More than anything, though, the fishing life requires time. The men and women of “Deadliest Catch” spend nearly their entire lives on the seas, with just a few weeks separating the king crab and snow crab seasons each year. That kind of commitment makes it extremely difficult to have any other priorities in your life. Longtime F/V Time Bandit deckhand Mike Fourtner discovered this problem in 2013 when his wife, Laci, became pregnant. Realizing that he couldn’t be a father and a fisherman at the same time, he departed the Time Bandit toward the end of Season 9 in 2013. Fourtner continued to appear on the series pre- and post-episode specials “The Bait” and “After the Catch” for several years afterward. He even had his own interview segment on “The Bait,” appropriately titled “The Fourtner Report.”

Fourtner and his family settled in Washington state, where he worked for years as a West Coast sales rep for Cummins, Inc., a company that manufactures marine engines. In recent years he has transitioned into general contracting work, still in Washington, and even built the house he and his family live in himself.

Dean Gribble Jr.

Deckhand Dean Gribble Jr.’s time on “Deadliest Catch” was short-lived; he appeared on just a handful of episodes in Season 13 aboard the F/V Saga. But just because he left the show doesn’t mean he left the life. Gribble is still a career fisherman and documents his exploits extensively via social media under the handle “kingcrabba.”

In late 2019 Gribble made headlines as one of just two survivors of a shipwreck. On December 31 the F/V Scandies Rose was en route to the Bering Sea for the start of the new crabbing season when it suddenly took on ice on its starboard side and capsized. Gribble and fellow crewman John Lawler managed to get on a lifeboat and were airlifted to safety by the Coast Guard. The two suffered hypothermia but were otherwise unharmed; sadly, the bodies of the other five members of the Scandies Rose crew, including its captain and his son, were never recovered. In February 2023, Gribble posted a TikTok video that used audio from the voicemail left by the Coast Guard to his father, informing Gribble Sr. of the accident and that Dean was rescued.

Edgar Hansen

Edgar Hansen was a fixture on “Deadliest Catch” from the very first episode, serving as a deckhand and later deck boss and engineer on the F/V Northwestern under his brother, Captain Sig Hansen. In Season 9 he even took over for his brother as relief captain, working closely with his niece (Sig’s daughter) Mandy to marshal the crew of the Northwestern for another grueling turn at sea. Hansen was a fan favorite, and along with his brother and the Harris family (more on them later), was one of the show’s breakout stars. He did the late-night talk show circuit in the early years and appeared on other reality shows like “This Old House” and “Ca$h Cab.” Then, after Season 14 in 2018, he disappeared from the show and has not been listed as a cast member since.

2018, not coincidentally, is also the year Hansen pled guilty to sexual assault of a teenage girl in Florida. He was given a fine and a suspended sentence but did not serve jail time. Since then Hansen has not appeared on camera in any subsequent episodes of “Deadliest Catch” or its spin-offs and has kept a low, almost nonexistent public profile. Attentive viewers, though, claim to have spotted him in the background in later seasons, and he is clearly seen in a video posted to Mandy’s Instagram in October 2018, several months after his conviction. He may not be a “Deadliest Catch” cast member anymore, but it appears that he is still working in some capacity on the Northwestern.

Jake Harris

Captain Phil Harris of the F/V Cornelia Marie appears just once in the first season of “Deadliest Catch,” but before long the ship and the entire Harris family would become central to the series. Phil’s son Jake Harris came on as a greenhorn in Season 2 and worked his way to deckhand in the seasons to come. The younger Harris’ world was rocked, however, by the death of Phil in 2010 after the conclusion of the show’s sixth season. Harris and his brother Josh carried on in their father’s memory, but issues with drug and alcohol abuse conflicted with his duties on the ship and on the show. He departed both in 2012, after Season 8.

Legal troubles followed in the years to come. Harris was arrested for DUI in 2019 and sentenced to 18 months in prison; a subsequent DUI arrest occurred in 2021. In 2021 and 2022 he appeared in a few episodes of his brother’s spin-off series “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline” and seemed to have gotten his life back on track with his wife, Shawna Brinkly, and their daughter. However, tragedy struck once again with the sudden death of Brinkly in August 2023.

Josh Harris

 

Jake Harris’ brother Josh joined the crew of the Cornelia Marie as a greenhorn at the start of Season 3 in 2007. The Harris brothers were fan favorites, and when their father Phil died in 2010 Josh stepped up as the new captain of the Cornelia Marie. For years Harris was a dependable presence on the show, guiding his crew through uncertain waters both literally and figuratively, as the coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down. In 2020 Harris starred in his own spin-off series, “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline,” which featured him sailing the Hawaiian islands with the aid of his father’s old maps.

Then, in 2022, Harris and the Cornelia Marie were dropped from the upcoming season due to a shocking incident in Harris’ past. In 1998 he was accused of sexually assaulting his neighbor’s daughter. Harris was a teenager at the time; the victim was four years old. He pled guilty and the charges were reduced to one count of Fourth Degree Assault and one count of Communicating to a Minor for Immoral Purposes. Harris was sentenced to 30 days’ confinement for each count, along with 24 months of supervision. When the conviction came to light, Discovery Channel issued a statement that Harris would not be involved in future episodes of the series (and presumably, his spinoff). Harris has kept a low public profile in the year since the incident came to light, though his Instagram account still boasts over 130,000 followers.

In April 2020, for those craving a reality TV escape from the hum-drum of quarantine, Discovery provided a spinoff of its hit show “Deadliest Catch.” Titled “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline,” the show followed Josh Harris, son of the late F/V Cornelia Marie Captain Phil Harris, as he trades the Bering Sea for the waters of Hawaii, all while using his father’s charts to guide his efforts.

Unlike the original series, which has been going strong since 2005, “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline” only ran for three seasons, until June 2022. That’s because, three months after the Season 3 finale, details of Harris’ dark adolescence came to light. More than 20 years prior, when he was a teenager, he was found guilty of the sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl who was a deckhand’s daughter.

A representative from Discovery at the time told Radar, “We’ve been made aware of this issue. Josh will not appear in future episodes of this series.”

Some fans are OK with never seeing Deadliest Catch: Bloodline again

Not only was Josh Harris fired from “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline” and the network as a whole, but Discovery canceled the entire spinoff series, putting everyone associated with Harris — including Casey McManus — out of a job. Discovery has also essentially scrubbed the series from existence, meaning it’s impossible to watch “Deadliest Catch: Bloodline” on any sort of streaming platform or On Demand.

For many fans of the franchise, not being able to rewatch the spinoff series isn’t a huge loss, as they found “Bloodline” to be scripted and repetitive. On Reddit, u/AAAFate said, “These charts they ‘found’ feel like manufactured TV to me. I don’t believe it one bit.” U/snotters said, “… you have about 30 seconds of entertaining footage where they’re fishing, interrupted constantly by Josh talking into the camera saying the same old thing, ‘We need to get this order done, hope my old man is looking down on us…'”

Even when the leading man doesn’t have a dark past, “Deadliest Catch” spinoffs tend not to boast much longevity on Discovery. For example, “Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns,” which saw F/V Northwestern Captain Sig Hansen head to the waters of Norway, only ran for one season. People want the original show, which is now engrained in pop culture to the degree that it’s referenced in projects like Disney’s new “Haunted Mansion.”

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

 

One of Discovery’s — and now Discovery+’s — flagship programs, “Deadliest Catch,” is currently knee-deep in its 17th season and rapidly approaching the 300 episode mark. In that time, the series has taken viewers on expeditions across the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, documenting the turbulent lives of the fisherman seeking massive crab hauls in the region. There’s no shortage of danger, drama, crushing failure, and heartwarming success on these adventures, hence why “Deadliest Catch” is now seen as a constant on the small screen and keeps viewers coming back for more.

Now over 15 years removed from its premiere, “Deadliest Catch” has undergone some significant changes, specifically in terms of its cast. For instance, one name that has risen to prominence is Captain Jake Anderson — a professional skateboarder and fourth-generation fisherman who arrived on the show during Season 3. Always eager to prove himself, he hasn’t had it easy on the high seas, especially when it comes to earning the respect of his peers, but he presses on all the same. This committed attitude led him to captain a famed ship known as the F/V Saga, taking over for its former captain, Elliott Neese.

For those keeping a close eye on the latest “Deadliest Catch” season, it’s apparent that The Saga hasn’t featured as prominently as it once did. Here’s what’s going on with Captain Anderson’s ship.

The Saga is back in action, but for how long?

For the first few episodes of “Deadliest Catch” Season 17, The Saga was nowhere to be found. Some fans questioned if Captain Jake Anderson’s vessel finally sank, and others pondered whether or not it was merely being repaired for unknown reasons. All of this speculation was put to bed when it reemerged in the episode “Restricted Zone,” which aired on May 25, 2021, with its absence never fully explained. Nevertheless, it has gone on to make a few more appearances to the delight of fans, once again putting its reputation as a rough and tough fishing boat on full display.

To put it mildly, the legacy of The Saga is one riddled with near-tragedy and incredibly close calls. As explained by Distractify, the 42-year old ship has become a never-ending restoration project for Anderson, seeing as it has nearly sunk on several occasions. One particularly infamous instance of this came during the 19th episode of Season 16, “Rogue Wave Juggernaut,” when The Saga’s rudder began to fail. This meant the crew had to fix it in perilous waters, or else they’d lose control, and it would inevitably sink. Thankfully the team avoided disaster, but this is just a small taste of The Saga’s misfortune.

It took longer than most had anticipated, but the F/V Saga is back out on the water and doing well. How long it will be able to do so remains to be seen, but it stands to reason that should issues arise, Captain Jake Anderson won’t allow the tenured boat to go down without a fight.