'Go-To Guy' on Deadliest Catch Is Dead at 59

A skilled deckhand on Deadliest Catch, known as his captain's "go-to guy" has died. TMZ reports that Nick Mavar, 59, who once toiled on the commercial fishing vessel F/V Northwestern on the Discovery Channel reality show, died Thursday in the Alaskan city of Naknek, according to a rep from the Bristol Bay Borough Police Department. The spokesperson said Mavar had suffered some kind of medical emergency, though they didn't elaborate. Mavar appeared on Deadliest Catch for 15 years or so, appearing in nearly 100 episodes, as well as in multiple Deadliest Catch spinoffs.

He ended his run on the program in late 2020, after his appendix ruptured while at sea. He eventually sued the boat's captain, Sig Hansen, for $1 million for not having the proper plans in place for dealing with medical emergencies during the pandemic. Hansen, meanwhile, pointed the finger at the show's production company and medical subcontractor. Mavar spent his final days in Alaska's Bristol Bay as the captain of his own salmon boat. He's survived by his wife, Julie, reports Variety. "Fair Winds and Following [Seas] Nick," read a Friday post from a Deadliest Catch fan page on Facebook. "You will be missed." (More Deadliest Catch stories.)