Deadliest Catch is a show renowned for its danger and drama. Captain Phil Harris achieved
icon status over the course of several seasons of the show, before his tragic passing in 2010.
It might seem bizarre to imagine that someone's fancy crab dinner
cost human lives, but viewers of the Discovery Channel's popular reality
series Deadliest Catch might not be too surprised by that.
The 19-season-long show — focusing on the lives and jobs of crab fishermen
in Alaska — has featured the deaths of half-a-dozen cast members over the
years. The first such tragedy occurred in 2010 during Season 6, when Deadliest Catch
star Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie suffered a stroke that happened off-camera. As
The U.S. Sun reports, he died at the age of 53 after several days in the hospital.
Harris' stroke kicked off a run of episodes that focused on his health and the reactions
of those who knew him. The first of these episodes garnered 5.4 million views,
according to The New York Times. Harris was placed in an induced coma and later
woke up following surgery. Sometime after this, however, he died from an intracranial hemorrhage.
The July 13th episode "Redemption Day" showed Harris during his final days. The subsequent
episode, "Valhalla", dealt with the aftermath of his death. These episodes were followed up with an
hour-long tribute episode titled "Captain Phil Harris Remembered." Clarke Bunting,
president and general manager of Discovery, told The New York Times,
"Most of the fans know what the unfortunate ending is. I think
this is a collective opportunity for people to express their condolences."
While fans of Deadliest Catch could have never foreseen that Phil Harris would suffer a stroke
and die as Season 6 was filming, People reported that he suffered from poor health
and lifestyle choices for years. He wore his body down over time through smoking,
high-calorie meals, pots of coffee, cases of Red Bull, and more.
He suffered a pulmonary embolism in 2008 — a life-threatening blood clot in the lung.
After that, a Deadliest Catch producer close to Harris observed that he seemed
to get weaker as time went on. On top of all this, Phil's son, Josh Harris, also said that
his father had herniated discs that left him in severe pain on his final trip out at sea.
As People reported, it was the Cornelia Marie's engineer Steve Ward who found
Captain Harris immobilized on the floor of his cabin. Josh Harris reported that
the left side of Phil's face, as well as both of his arms were paralyzed.
And yet, as PopMatters wrote, even in this debilitated condition Captain Harris told
the Deadliest Catch production crew to continue filming. The Discovery Channel
filmed everything as it was happening and built the rest of Season 6 around Harris'
failing condition. He was transported to a hospital in Anchorage, underwent surgery,
and seemed to take a turn for the better, but he ultimately died.
"I don't know how to tell you this, Jake, but, um, we lost Dad, dude."
As Deadliest Catch footage shows, Phil Harris and his elder son Josh butted heads,
challenged each other for dominance, and played pranks on each other. But when push came to shove,
the two came together. In a 2010 People article, Josh Harris describes being grateful for the
time that he and his father had while he was in the hospital in Anchorage, saying,
"We had nine days total that we were there to enjoy a few
moments with him. We had our closest people there and it was awesome."
On that same note, Captain Harris' closest friend Dan Mittman spoke positively
about the upturn that Harris displayed following his surgery. He explained that,
regardless of the tragic outcome, him being awake and aware long enough to be able to
say goodbye to those closest to him was a miracle in itself. People describes how
Harris more or less passed the professional baton to his children. His son Josh said,
"My life goal was to show him I could be a man, you know, and I could fish, and I did
the best job that I could, and he recognized that as being a good job and gave me kudos."
Harris' younger son Jake said,
"I'm going to be looking at that [captain's] chair in a different
way [...] I just didn't expect this to happen so soon. That's definitely
something where I would take over and take the responsibility."