Deadline: ‘Deadliest Catch’ Alum Nick Mavar Dies, Former Northwestern Deckhand Was 59

Story from Deadline:

Nick Mavar, who appeared on Discovery Channel’s reality franchise Deadliest Catch, died Thursday in Naknek, AK, Bristol Bay Police Chief Jeffrey Eldie confirmed to Deadline. He was 59.

Mavar suffered a medical emergency at a boatyard in Naknek Thursday afternoon, according to Eldie. Paramedics were called and he was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead of what was determined to be natural causes, Eldie says.

The tall, craggy, gravel-voiced Mavar appeared in 98 episodes on Deadliest Catch from 2005 to 2021, as well as several spinoffs including Deadliest Catch: Siberian Winter and Deadliest Catch: The Bait. Mavar served as a deckhand, maintaining Sig Hansen’s F/V Northwestern and its mechanical equipment. He departed the series after his appendix ruptured onboard in December 2020, a medical scare that was chronicled on the show.

Mavar later sued the owners of the F/V Northwestern alleging there wasn’t a proper plan in place to get him proper medical help during the pandemic. In turn, the boat owners sued the show’s production company also alleging “failure to have an adequate plan in place” to get outside medical help during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He was a familiar face to fans, given his status on the Northwestern, which is captained by Hansen, the franchise’s de-facto elder statesman. Mavar was also uncle to onetime Northwestern greenhorn turned-deckhand turned-Saga captain, Jake Anderson. Mavar played a key role in one of the show’s longest-running storylines, helping his nephew get sober from drugs and alcohol.

In 2021, Anderson posted photo with is uncle online with a tribute that read in part, “I love you uncle Nick Mavar you are the embodiment of fisherman. Thank you for pulling me out of the mire so many years ago.”

Mavar’s death comes just days after Deadliest Catch Captain “Wild” Bill Wichrowski publicly shared his prostate cancer diagnosis. Wichrowski’s deck boss on Deadliest Catch, Nick McGlashan, died in 2020 due to addiction.