“Deadliest Catch” star Nick Mavar dies at the age of 59 at a boatyard in Alaska

Nick Mavar, a longtime fisherman whose dogged years as a deckhand were documented on the Discovery Channel reality series “Deadliest Catch,” died Thursday in Alaska, Bristol Bay Police Chief Jeffrey Eldie confirmed to Deadline on Friday. He was 59.

His nephew Jake Anderson, who appeared on the show with Mavar and had previously thanked Mavar for helping him overcome his drug problem, told The New York Times on Saturday that Mavar suffered a heart attack while climbing a ladder at a shipyard in Naknek, Alaska, and fell onto a dry dock.

Mavar was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“The death of Nick Mavar has spread like wildfire through the fishing community,” Sig Hansen, captain of the ship Northwestern featured in the program, said Friday. “This is no surprise because he was so well known and respected in the fishing fleet.”

Mavar starred in 98 episodes of 17 seasons of Deadliest Catch and appeared in several of the popular spin-offs. He worked aboard the Northwestern and its equipment until 2020, when he left the show after his appendix burst during filming.

Mavar sued Hansen last year for $1 million for failing to have an adequate plan for medical care for the ship’s employees, Alaska Public Media reported. Hansen argued in court last year that the show’s production company and medical supply company were responsible for the ship’s COVID-19 protocols that delayed Mavar’s care.

The fisherman was injured during the filming of an episode in 2011 when a storm caused a large hook to come loose and hit Mavar in the face, breaking his nose. Both this incident and the appendicitis scare were documented in the show.

His death came nearly four years after 33-year-old Deadliest Catch deckhand Nick McGlashan died of a drug overdose – and days after Captain “Wild” Bill Wichrowski announced his prostate cancer diagnosis in a preview of the show’s current season.

Mavar spent his final years playing golf and running his own salmon boat in Bristol Bay. He leaves behind his wife, father, two children from a previous marriage, a stepdaughter and three siblings. His nephew remembers him as “a fisherman through and through.”

“The camera was just there,” Anderson told the Times.