The commercial fishers on Deadliest Catch have a limited window to catch as many crabs as possible while navigating the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Returning to dry land in the middle of crab season costs them both time and money. But one captain was left without a choice after an emergency at sea. Keep reading to find out why a crew member was forced to leave the boat.
Deadliest Catch Crew Member Forced To Leave Boat After Emergency At Sea
Deadliest Catch has been giving viewers an unfiltered look at commercial crab fishing for over 20 years. The reality show premiered in 2005. Season 22 premiered in May. In an earlier August episode, the F/V Northwestern returned to land so a crew member could disembark to be with his pregnant fiance.
Captain Sig Hansen felt “betrayed” by the departure because it cost him time and money for a non-emergency. “There is a code out here, and it’s always been, at least in my mind, what I’ve been taught is: ‘Boat comes first,’” he said about deckhand Adam’s decision to leave the boat.
The Friday, September 4, episode saw another crew member forced to leave a different boat. Jake Anderson’s Cornelia Marie had to return to the shore after a crew member suffered a medical emergency. Producer and cameraman Matt Holland developed a serious infection that left him in terrible pain. Relief captain Jake Albinio came down with the same infection but recovered without intervention.
However, antibiotics provided by the crew didn’t work on Matt Holland’s facial infection. “I have a very high pain tolerance, and I’ve met my match,” the producer admitted to Jake Anderson, according to PEOPLE magazine.
“Being out here, doing this job, it’s about survival. Infections on boats are bad. It could get poked by a crab, there’s old cod guts, there’s all kinds of stuff down there that’ll make you sick in all kinds of ways,” Jake Anderson told the cameras.
When the antibiotics didn’t work and the infection got worse, the captain sought advice from another producer. The producer advised that the boat return to St. Paul, Alaska, so Matt Holland could disembark and another camera crew member take his place. Then they had to go back to work.
“It’s a bummer. Matt’s a good guy. But the fact of the matter is, we got to get the h*** out of here,” Jake Anderson said about the unexpected return to land.
Infection Spreads Through Jake Anderson’s Crew
As Captain Jake Anderson said, infections on a boat are very serious. “This isn’t like being at work, where you just get in the car or call an ambulance and two minutes later you’re at the hospital,” he pointed out. Matt Holland was the second person on the boat to get the illness, which could have been a staph infection. Not surprisingly, other crew members also contracted the infection.
However, they all recovered after receiving medication while at sea. Despite the raging infection, the Cornelia Marie crew were able to continue fishing without another unexpected detour back to land.
Deadliest Catch airs Fridays at 8 PM Eastern on Discovery Channel.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger