Since its premiere in 2006, Discovery Channel’sDeadliestCatchis an addictive look into the wild and treacherous lives of those aboard crab fishing boats in the Bering Sea — an occupation that stands as one of theworld’s most dangerous. That’s 20 seasons worth of capturing perilous moments for the boat’s crew and the camera operators on board, like dealing with a highly volatile, once-in-a-lifetimesupermoon storm in 2018. Or that time they endured rather human moments, like thecardiac eventthat befellCaptain Keith Colburnthat left fans fearing the worst. We as fans have come to know these people intimately, and, by extension, the fishing vessels they work on, boats that can stand up, and must stand up, to the wavering whims of the sea.
Somehave fared betterthan others, likeCaptain Sig Hansen’sF/V NorthwesternandCaptain “Wild” Bill Wichrowski’s F/V Summer Bay, while others, to quote oneStevie Ray Vaughan,“Couldn’t Stand the Weather.“That includes the Season 4 standout F/V North American, captained bySten Skaar, but not how you might expect.
‘Deadliest Catch’s F/V North American Succumbs to Pier Pressure
The North American made a lasting impression with a guest appearance on a Season 4 episode ofDeadliest Catch, notably for beingpranked with a Port-A-Pottyin their nets at sea. Little more was heard of ituntil June 20, 2025, when the Coast Guard responded to a call from the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle at 7:30 a.m. There, partially sunk alongside a pier, was the 91-foot crab vessel North American. Seattle Fire responders (presumably not fromStation 19) were quick to install a containment boom around her to prevent diesel fuel, as much as 32,500 gallons, from polluting the waters, while a dive team set about plugging vents to reduce any further leakage. The North American, which had once braved the perils of the Bering Sea, hadunceremoniously met its end while docked.
An investigation was launched, and fans were updated courtesy of aReddit postfrom a close friend of the North American’s family in November. The investigation revealed that a hole in one of the bottom fuel tanks was bringing water in, and when the tank was filled with fuel, the bulkhead connected to the shaft alley cracked, leaking water into the engine room, and it went downhill — or down water — from there. Insurance dubbed it a loss, and its owners didn’t have the financing to salvage it, so the captain and crew moved on from the North American with heavy hearts, and put theboat up for sale, as is, for"scrap, restoration, salvage, or another use that will remove the vessel from state waters,” at $100,000, or best offer.
It Wouldn’t Have Made Sense to Try and Restore ‘Deadliest Catch’s F/V North American
With no guarantees that anything on board was in working order, the decision to walk away fromDeadliest Catch’s North America was a wise one, with the boat added tothe list of boatsfrom the series that have been decommissioned. Someonedid pick it up, however, with speculation that it was purchased by a corporation or a company outside of the states. Given the prohibitive costs of shipyard work, the most likely scenario for the North American, if we useother formerDeadliest Catchboats, is that the vessel is being stripped of any parts that can be taken out and sold. Other options, like being used for a tourist attraction or simply being scuttled, are unlikely.
How Do ‘Deadliest Catch’ Stars Spend Their Crab Fishing Offseason?
There’s a reason the cameras don’t film year-round.
But after all is said and done,moving on from the F/V North American may be cheaper than salvaging it,but it’s still a pricey venture. Aquick dip into the websiteof a fishing boat dealer reveals that a comparable vessel is available for $2,597,955 (a reduced price, by the way, formerly $4.2 million). And while a crabberhas the potentialto make millions, asCaptain Jake AndersontoldFox Business(“I think I grossed $2.5 million in 11 days”), the highly volatile industry is at the mercy of crab volumes and season lengths, andthe average for crewmen is about $100,000 a year, and captains twice that, according to anAlaska Bering Sea Crabber spokesperson. Those numbers are almost as frightening as the Bering Sea itself.
All episodes ofDeadliest Catchare available to stream on Discovery+ in the U.S.
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