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‘Deadliest Catch’: How Josh Harris Says Captain Sig Hansen ‘Helped’ After His Dad Died

“Deadliest Catch” is more than just a popular television show, it’s also a family of sorts.

Nothing brings people together like navigating tumultuous waters – literally and metaphorically. That was certainly the case for “Deadliest Catch” star Josh Harris and his castmate Sig Hansen. According to Harris, Hansen really stepped in to support Josh and his brother Jake when their father, Phil Hansen, passed in 2010.

During an interview in 2020, Harris talked about his relationship with his “Deadliest Catch” castmate. The interviewer asked Harris which of his castmates he trusts and admires most.

“Obviously, the boat is not there anymore. It was the F/V Time Bandit,” said Harris. “Just, they were my family—in a sense—that took me in.  I love those guys.”

Harris added that Hansen really took Jake under his wing after their father’s passing.

“And I have a lot of respect for Sig Hansen. He also helped us out and when my dad passed away by taking in my brother Jake, trying to get him to pull his head out of his keister,” said Harris. “Which is a tough job sometimes, but he took that responsibility. That was really nice.”

How Did ‘Deadliest Catch’ Star Phil Harris Pass?

Unfortunately, after five seasons with “Deadliest Catch, Phil Harris passed away on February 9, 2010. On that day, Harris was off-loading crab from his boat when he suffered a massive stroke. Harris’s engineer for the Cornelia Marie, Steve Ward, found Harris unresponsive on the floor of his room in the boat. Ward immediately asked Josh Harris to call 911.

“The whole left side of his face was in paralysis, and that was hard,” said Josh Harris during an interview in 2010. “He couldn’t move his arms or anything, he was just paralyzed on the floor.”

Phil was brought to a hospital where he underwent a long operation and was placed into a medically induced coma. Doctors did not feel that Harris would be able to recover from the surgery. However, he woke up a few days later and spent his remaining days with his family.

“I got five days to actually talk with him,” Josh said. “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. “

Phill Harris may have left this time and place but his “Deadliest Catch” legacy certainly still lives on. After Phil passed, Josh took over as captain of the family business.

” I’m going to be looking at that [captain’s] chair in a different way,” “We definitely talked about it, but I just didn’t expect this to happen so soon. That’s definitely something where I would take over and take the responsibility.”