Why This ‘Deadliest Catch’ Boat Is Now Deemed “Unsalvageable”

Since its premiere in 2006, Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch is 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 the world’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-lifetime supermoon storm in 2018. Or that time they endured rather human moments, like the cardiac event that befell Captain Keith Colburn that 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.

Some have fared better than others, like Captain Sig Hansen’s F/V Northwestern and Captain “Wild” Bill Wichrowski’s F/V Summer Bay, while others, to quote one Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Couldn’t Stand the Weather.” That includes the Season 4 standout F/V North American, captained by Sten 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 of Deadliest Catch, notably for being pranked with a Port-A-Potty in their nets at sea. Little more was heard of it until May 14, 2024, 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 from Station 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, had unceremoniously met its end while docked.

An investigation was launched, and fans were updated courtesy of a Reddit post from 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 the boat 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 from Deadliest Catch’s North America was a wise one, with the boat added to the list of boats from the series that have been decommissioned. Someone did 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 use other former Deadliest Catch boats, 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.

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. A quick dip into the website of 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 crabber has the potential to make millions, as Captain Jake Anderson told Fox 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, and the average for crewmen is about $100,000 a year, and captains twice that, according to an Alaska Bering Sea Crabber spokesperson. Those numbers are almost as frightening as the Bering Sea itself.