15 Secrets You Didn’t Know About The Making Of The Deadliest Catch

Summary

• Behind the intense drama of Deadliest Catch, shocking off-camera events have occurred within the cast and crew.
• Substance abuse, arrests, lawsuits, and even allegations of abuse have marred the lives of those involved with the show.
• The dangerous environmental changes due to climate change and risky fishing practices have affected the cast and the filming process.

Deadliest Catch has been a huge Discovery Channel hit since it premiered in 2005. With over 300 episodes, the Alaskan-based reality TV series captures the real-life drama aboard crabbing boats in the Bering Strait during the Alaskan king, Opilio, and Bairdi crab fishing seasons. Crews battle fierce and inhospitable environments to reach their quota and make a living. Waves toss about boats like they are nothing and heavy machinery could sweep a crew member out to sea at any moment with one big wave.

Over the years, these struggles and those who go through them have attracted millions of viewers. Despite the show’s extreme conditions and high drama, some of the most shocking stuff happens off-camera. Deadliest Catch also has a large crew behind the scenes, making the show work. With that large crew and the memorable Deadliest Catch boats, plenty of drama has bubbled up over the show’s long run. From breaking the law and high-profile civil lawsuits to post-production trickery, there’s always more going on that fans don’t see.

15 Several Cast Members Had Substance Issues

Elliott Neese, Jake Harris, And Nick McGlashan All Had Abuse Problems

Several cast members have left throughout Deadliest Catch’s run on Discovery Channel, with their drama behind the scenes. One issue that has popped up for the cast and crew is substance abuse problems. Elliott Neese gave up his role as Captain of The Saga and left the series in season 11, checking into a 60-day rehab program for drug addiction (via Distractify). Jake Harris was arrested for substance possession after his father’s death, saying, “I got a big hole in my heart, and I tried to fill it up with everything that wasn’t good for it” (via CNN).

Nick McGlashan passed away in 2020 at 33.

Nick McGlashan also had a prolonged struggle. “My life went from Bering Sea bada** to full-blown junkie very rapidly. Hidden from me was that passion I had for life,” Nick McGlashan wrote in 2017 (via Chosenmag.com). “Taken from me was my ability to live. I was at war with my addiction and it was winning… I was three overdoses into my addiction and a heavy alcoholic. My addict self was killing me, and I was struggling to die.” Nick McGlashan passed away in 2020 at 33.

14 The Show’s Production Manager Was Arrested For Selling Illegal Substances

Matthew Schneider Was Arrested In An 18-Person Drug Bust

The cast of Deadliest Catch aren’t the only ones who have butted up against substance abuse problems. In 2010, Matthew Schneider, the show’s production manager, was charged with using and selling illegal substances after he delivered about $300 worth of cocaine to an undercover officer as part of an elaborate sting that resulted in 18 arrests (via Today). Court documents also said Schneider used these substances in front of the undercover officers and talked about buying large amounts to sell. None of the captains or crew members who appear on the show were connected to the arrest.

Overall, the police seized a large number of illegal substances during the investigation, along with $13,000 in cash. The drugs included methamphetamine, cocaine, OxyContin, and marijuana and had a street value of around $80,000. The mayor at the time, Shirley Marquardt, said, “for people from out of town that come here, don’t bring that garbage with you. If you are going to bring that garbage with you, you are not welcome.”

13 Sig Hansen Was Accused Of Terrible Things

Hansen’s Daughter Sued Him For Abuse From Her Childhood

Sig Hansen has been a longtime fan-favorite on Deadliest Catch, so it came as quite a surprise when allegations of abuse surfaced in March of 2017. Hansen’s estranged daughter, Melissa Eckstrom, a 28-year-old attorney living in Seattle, filed a lawsuit against her father, alleging he abused her as a child. The lawsuit relied on her memories of the abuse, as well as medical examinations, a therapist’s evaluation, and state Child Protective Services’ findings from the time that concluded Hansen likely abused his daughter in 1990 when she was just two years old.

Sig Hansen denied the allegations and claimed the medical and psychological findings were biased. In April 2017, prosecutors decided they couldn’t bring criminal charges against the captain, but a civil lawsuit remained in the courts. Hansen has always denied the claims, saying that Eckstrom’s mother “poisoned my relationship with our daughter through years of vile lies” (via Cheat Sheet).

12 Sig Hansen Spat On An Uber Driver And Kicked His Car

Hansen Pled Guilty To The Criminal Charges

While DAs refused to prosecute the criminal case against Sig Hansen, the Deadliest Catch star was arrested in connection with misdemeanor assault and property destruction charges in May 2017 after an alleged incident with an Uber driver. The charges alleged that Hansen got into an argument with the driver before spitting on the driver’s head and kicking the outside of the car. Hansen received probation and a $43 fine after pleading guilty (via PEOPLE).

“I am terribly sorry for my behavior and am very embarrassed by it. I owe a bunch of people apologies, first and foremost to our Uber driver, who was just trying to get us home safely,” Hansen said in a statement at the time. “I hope I can make that apology in person. I have no excuse and accept responsibility for my actions. I made a boneheaded move last night, and I am sorry.”

11 The Show Doesn’t Cover The Deadliest Kind Of Fishing

There Are Three Different FIshing Types Deadlier Than King Crab Fishing

A fisherman’s life used to be a lot deadlier than it is today. Increased safety measures and precautions have saved countless lives and continue to improve. There are still many risks associated with crab fishing in the Bering Sea, but there are actually at least three deadlier catches (via Salon). According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, groundfish, like cod and flounder, were the deadliest kind of fishing on the East Coast of the United States from 2000 to 2014.

Commercial fishing dropped to number 2, behind logging, in the list of most dangerous occupations.

Atlantic scallop fishing was the second most dangerous, and Dungeness crab fishing off the coasts of Oregon and Washington was the third deadliest. Overall, fishing conditions do improve every year. From 1990 to 2014, there was a 74% drop in commercial fishing fatalities in Alaska. In addition, commercial fishing dropped to number 2, behind logging, in the list of most dangerous occupations.

10 Joe McMahon Was Shot & Killed

A Sad Story For A Deadliest Catch Producer

A handful of serious accidents happened throughout Deadliest Catch. Cornelia Marie captain Phil Harris passed away of a pulmonary embolism in 2010, deckhand Justin Tennison died of sleep apnea complications in 2011, and Captain Tony Lara died of a heart attack in 2015. The most shocking death happened to someone who never appeared on the show. In 2015, someone shot one of the show’s associate producers, Joe McMahon, outside his home in Pasadena, California.

Police pronounced the 24-year-old dead at the scene and they quickly pinpointed a suspect but weren’t able to make an arrest. One day after the shooting, the body of the suspect, Brandon Rafiepour, was found dead in his car from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. “The entire Original Productions Family is heartbroken with this news. Our thoughts and prayers are for the McMahon Family,” said Philip D. Segal, CEO of Original Productions, the company that produces Deadliest Catch (via NBC).

9 Beaver Sued The Hillstrands

A Firework Blew Up In His Hand On The Time Bandit

Time Bandit co-owners Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand have been longtime fan favorites on Deadliest Catch. However, in 2015, a lawsuit emerged that caused them multiple problems. David “Beaver” Zielinski, a former deckhand, filed a lawsuit alleging that the Hillstrands were responsible for severe injuries to his hand. The lawsuit came after a 2013 incident that appeared on the show, in which a mortar-style firework blew up in Beaver’s hand on the deck of the Time Bandit.

Beaver claimed that the firework, which the Hillstrands marketed and branded as a “Time Bandit” product, blew up early and caused the injury. The explosion shattered Zielinski’s right hand and forearm, ending his career as a crab fisherman. The case took two years to resolve, but ultimately, in January 2017, the courts sided with Beaver, and the Hillstrands were ordered to pay him $1.35 million (via Seattle PI).

8 The Hillstrands Were Also Sued By Discovery

The Hillstrands & Sig Hansen Walked Out After The Lawsuit

If losing a lawsuit to one of their former deckhands wasn’t bad enough, the Hillstrands also faced a $3 million lawsuit from Discovery in 2010. The brothers were working on creating a spinoff series with Discovery called Hillstranded, but they didn’t show up for pickup shots and their final interviews. This prompted Discovery to deliver the captains a $3 million lawsuit. In response, the Hillstrands threatened to leave Deadliest Catch, and Sig Hansen joined them, departing the reality TV show.

Eventually, the captains and Discovery reached a settlement. “We’re happy we worked everything out with Discovery,” the captains said in a statement (via THR). “A deal’s a deal. We’re heading up to Dutch Harbor to start filming the new season of ‘Deadliest Catch’ and hopefully it will be the best one yet.” With their return, Discovery Channel agreed to drop its lawsuit for the Hillstrands’ missing work. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Discovery was reportedly happy with the negotiations.

7 The Film Crews Work Just As Hard As The Fishermen

Capt. Bill Wichrowski Says The Camermen Are Always In Danger

While the show mainly focuses on the difficulties faced by the captains and crews of the Alaska crab fishing industry, it also creates its own hazards. In order to capture the dangers of the job, The Discovery Channel has to hire camera crews who are willing to put their own lives in danger. While the results have been impressive over the years, it hasn’t come without added risk.

“It’s hard enough on deck without a camera,” Captain Bill Wichrowski said in 2014 (via AV Club). “You see our guys getting bounced around on deck and they have their full peripheral vision, and they’re supposed to be trained professionals. Then you put these film crew guys on there, and they’re stumbling around looking through a viewfinder, and it’s amazing that these guys don’t get banged up more.”

6 The Show Fakes Drama

It’s no secret that some reality television shows employ a little bit of fakery to heighten the drama. It’s normal for a show to cut out parts of conversations or mix and match scenes that will play the best on television. However, in 2008, the Deadliest Catch crew might have taken it too far. In the season 4 debut, the Wizard is shown crashing up and down gigantic waves during a storm. Inside the ship, crews are shown frantically trying to fix a flooding issue below deck.

The show was patching together footage from different days to heighten the action.

It’s a pretty dramatic scene. Unfortunately, those two things never happened together. The Hollywood Reporter discovered, after the episode aired, that the waves from the storm were filmed in October while the flooding had happened a month earlier in September. A production outline was discovered that suggested that the show was patching together footage from different days to heighten the action. Deadliest Catch still employs this editing tactic to this day.

5 One Of The Show’s Stars Was A Bank Robber

Joshua Tel Warner Went To Prison For Robbing Three Banks

The cast and crew of Deadliest Catch have committed several crimes over the years, but Joshua Tel Warner, a former crew member of the Wizard, might have topped them all. In 2007, Joshua was wanted by police in connection with a series of at least three bank robberies. The robberies had taken place over a couple of years and involved one bank being robbed more than once. Warner first robbed Washington Mutual Bank in Oregon on Oct. 19, 2007. After joining Deadliest Catch, he robbed Pacific Continental Bank and then hit the bank again three weeks later.

Police began to suspect Joshua after receiving a tip from former crew members on Deadliest Catch. According to them, Joshua bragged about the robberies, saying now that he was famous, his past may come back to haunt him. Viewers watching the show also recognized him from surveillance footage the local news aired. Police arrested Warner in 2009, and he received a nine-year prison sentence (via Cheat Sheet).

4 Climate Change Is Affecting The Show

Warmer Waters Is Killing The King Crabs In Alaska

The environment is often the most dangerous part of Deadliest Catch. The poor weather and massive waves of the Bering Strait create natural drama between humans and nature that remains enthralling to watch, but a changing climate has forced the cast and crews to take even more risks. R. Decker Watson Jr., one of the show’s executive producers, talked about the changes due to global warming in 2017 (via The Daily Mail).

”
The waters off Alaska that provide the livelihood for the show’s real-life stars warmed by a dramatic 4 degrees in one year
.
The cold water-loving crab is depleted in the traditional fishing areas, so some of the boats strike out for new territory that is more dangerous because of fiercer storms and is further from rescue workers if something goes wrong.
”

Sadly, this is still a significant problem. In 2021 and 2022, the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game canceled the king and snow crab seasons to address the shrinking populations of the two species. Deadliest Catch had to find stories to tell without being allowed to do what the show promised.

3 Producers Film More Boats And Captains Than What They Use On The Show

Despite being a massive success for The Discovery Channel, each season of Deadliest Catch is a huge risk. On top of the expected risk of potential bodily harm in the Bering Strait, there’s the constant risk that nothing particularly interesting will happen or, even worse, they’ll miss it. At least four remote cameras remain attached to various parts of each vessel to ensure the production crew captures all the footage.

Next, the camera crews live on the boat for the entirety of the crab run, usually around three to five weeks, capturing everything. The Deadliest Catch showrunners also work with more boats than they think they’ll need to increase the odds of capturing great footage. In an interview with David Niu from 2010 (via BuddyTV), he revealed that producers film more boats than the ones that actually make it onto the show.

2 Elliott Neese Was Fined $3,000 For Catching Undersized Crabs

Only King Crabs 7-Inches Or Wider May Be Retained

Elliott Neese, one of the youngest captains to appear on Deadliest Catch, has had more than his fair share of problems over the years, but in 2015 he made a rookie mistake. Neese ran into trouble with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game after being caught trying to unload undersized crabs. Neese was trying to bring in a large load of very valuable red king crabs. However, officials took a sample of his cargo. The officials found 13 undersized crabs, which is against regulations in the crabbing world.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulates that fishermen can only retain male king crabs with a shell width of 7 inches or wider. Fishermen must throw back all smaller crabs and females. The report on the incident indicated that it’s not uncommon to see “rookies” make this kind of mistake, but it is still illegal. Neese was fined $6,000 for the incident. Officials cut the fine in half after he agreed to a guilty plea (via TMZ).

1 Jake Harris Has Had A Lot Of Problems

Jake Spent 18 Months In Prison

Jake Harris has had quite a few problems in the last decade. After his father’s unexpected passing in 2010, Jake was arrested for a hit-and-run, driving under the influence, and driving with a suspended license after crashing his BMW (via Los Angeles Times). In 2013, Harris disappeared from the promotional material for Deadliest Catch. According to his brother Josh, this was because Harris was struggling with addiction issues.

Unfortunately for Harris, things only got worse. In 2016, he suffered brain trauma after a fight during an apparent robbery. Police arrested Harris for allegedly stealing a car a few months later. During the arrest, police also allegedly found illegal drugs in his possession (via TMZ). The Deadliest Catch star spent 18 months in prison for his crimes. In a happy ending, his brother says that Jake is doing better and is now a stay-at-home dad with five kids (via Patheos).