when they’re not hauling in massive amounts of king crab, Deadliest Catch’s Northwestern crew have been busy starting families, recovering from their darkest chapters, and moving on to exciting new opportunities.

Northwestern captain Sig Hansen sure seems to have found his niche as both a Bering Sea captain and a TV consultant.

He has a slew of credits to his name, including other Deadliest Catch–related properties like Unfinished Business and Battle Scars.

In 2022 alone, he was involved with seven productions.

But what else has he been up to?

In addition to making appearances at various panels and events, Hansen kicked off 2024 by being named the recipient of the Norwegian Commercial Club’s Neptune Award, which recognizes those who have made invaluable contributions to the fishing industry.

On his Facebook page, he wrote, “Receiving the King Neptune Award is not just a personal honor, it’s a moment to reflect on the journey, the storms weathered, and the successes achieved.”

It hasn’t been all good news though.

In 2019, Hansen spoke with Entertainment Weekly about having a second heart attack that was triggered by an allergic reaction to antibiotics he was given for a sinus infection, which was a serious reality check for him.

“Bottom line,” he said, “I just want to get out there and start fishing. Time is short.”

Also in 2019, Hansen was dealing with another health crisis, his wife Jun’s cancer diagnosis, although he has since said that they were fortunate that she was diagnosed early.

Edgar Hansen was a Northwestern crew staple for a long time, appearing in more than 160 episodes of the original show as well as some spin-offs.

In 2020, he appeared on a single episode of This Old House: Trade School, but it’s pretty much been radio silence from him since then.

It seems like things had a turning point for Hansen in 2018, which was when The Seattle Times reported that he had entered a plea deal in the matter of the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl and that he had served a suspended jail sentence.

This unsurprisingly coincided with his disappearance from social media and from the show.

But it seems that he’s actually still on the Northwestern, just not in front of the cameras.

He’s occasionally appeared in social media posts made by other crew members, like a 2018 Instagram video posted by Mandy Hansen at the start of the season.

In the years since, some fans have noticed Edgar in the background of certain episodes.

Discovery may have removed him from the show, but they don’t own the boats, it’s still a family business after all, and it seems as though Hansen is just staying on the down low.

Jake Anderson has been a Deadliest Catch fan favorite for a long time, and he has quite the compelling backstory.

As he explained to PC Principal in 2015, “What a lot of people didn’t know about me before I was on the boat was that I was actually living on the street.”

“I got a job with Sig and I just started making these dreams and goals, with my story you watch this kid grow from being homeless with a dream to someone with goals who kept achieving, I’ll never forget those days.”

Anderson also dealt with some devastating tragedies, including the death of his sister and the disappearance of his father.

In 2015, he took over as captain of The Saga.

He’s remained close with his crew from the Northwestern though, and he was a consultant on Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns.

He’s also been busy consulting on other Deadliest Catch spin-offs, and he regularly shares updates about his personal life on Facebook.

Unfortunately, Norman Hansen is one Deadliest Catch crew member who has dropped off the radar in a big way.

In one episode from 2019, his brother Sig was summoned from the wheelhouse to shouts of alarm as Norman had fallen and was having a seizure.

The engineer was reported to be breathing but unconscious and bleeding before being stabilized and taken to a local hospital.

There are a few publicly available clues about what happened next, but not too much information about what Norman has been up to.

He posted a photo on Facebook after the incident of himself playing with a dog in a pile of kittens, and he’s only posted a few more photos since then, including one with a young foal and another with a small black dog.

The last update was in September 2021, and although he’s been living life on the quiet side, he’s also been credited on several episodes of Deadliest Catch since then.

Mandy Hansen has been on the Northwestern and Deadliest Catch for quite a while, and by 2018 she had already put in enough work that she was training to be a captain and occasionally stepping into the role as a relief captain.

Then in 2021, Sig Hansen spoke with Nicki Swift about their plans and confirmed that the way things were going, Mandy was all set to be the next captain.

But what about when the cameras stopped rolling?

In February 2019, Mandy shared some heartbreaking news on Instagram along with a photo of a baby’s onesie and some boots, writing, “Though I lost you my previous season on board, I still think about you every day, words cannot describe the hurt and the love I still feel for you, may we meet one day little one.”

In November 2021, Mandy had a much happier update as she shared with People magazine the first photos of her daughter, the aptly named Sailor.

She gushed, “Bringing a child into this world is the most incredible feeling, every way you think changes the moment you hold your baby, and you instantly know nothing is more important than protecting their life.”

Since then, Mandy has regularly shared updates and photos to Facebook, including trips to Norway.

Clark Pederson’s off-screen life has been pretty similar to that of Mandy Hansen, as the two are married after all.

Pederson famously asked Sig Hansen for his daughter’s hand in marriage during one particular episode in season 13.

Now when they’re not fishing, Pederson regularly shares photos of their daughter on Instagram along with photos from the fishing boats while he’s out at sea.

He was also featured on the spin-off The Viking Returns in 2019.

Pederson told Washington State Magazine that things can get pretty terrifying out on the sea, adding, “There’s no time to sit and think about it, if you’re worried about getting hurt, that’s when problems happen, there’s no time to second guess yourself or be soft, you have to jump at any opportunity to be able to get up in the wheelhouse.”

Pederson is feeling extra stress as he wants to make both his wife and father-in-law proud.

In the offseason, he and his family live in Washington, and he makes it a point to get back to his alma mater, Washington State University, for football games.

Even when he’s back at home, he can’t keep away from the water, and for all the dog lovers out there, he loves to share photos and videos of his pit bull, Carl.

Carl Rasmussen started out on the Northwestern as a greenhorn and appeared on several dozen episodes of both Deadliest Catch and Deadliest Catch: The Bait.

He hasn’t appeared in all the spin-offs that other crew members have, but he’s still been keeping busy, particularly with his animals.

In 2023, Rasmussen appeared in a video on the YouTube channel Wolf’s World, which started out with a tour of his outdoor reptile enclosure, and he also showed off some giant chickens and his turtle-filled pond.

Rasmussen is also active on Instagram and Facebook, where he shares photos from the deck of the Northwestern as well as a ton of pictures of his family.

Although he’s still listed as a deckhand on the Northwestern, he’s also the captain and owner of the FV Mariah.

Of all the past and present Northwestern crew members, Nick “Sunshine” Tokman boasts perhaps the most unique story.

He was a deckhand on both the Northwestern and The Saga, and now he’s a motivational speaker.

According to his personal website, he decided to share what he’d learned about perseverance, mental health, and overcoming obstacles in 2016.

Tokman sat down with Louder Than War to share more behind-the-scenes insights about his journey up to Alaska, explaining that he encountered steep adversity as he struggled to find work, and once he did, it was one of the most challenging things he’d ever done.

Still, it provided him with the motivation to do what he really wanted to do.

As he explained, “I want to work with kids, I am leaving the show to pursue a career in motivational speaking because I really believe in what I’m doing, I don’t know if I’m going to make it or not, but I’m going to give it my best shot, I’m a very spiritual person and I feel that going up to Alaska was a path I was supposed to take on my journey through life, I feel my path now is to motivate kids.”

Tokman is now available for programs geared towards kids in grades four and up, and he’s also been featured as a keynote speaker at colleges and corporate events.

Nick Mavar was a fan favorite who appeared on nearly 100 episodes of Deadliest Catch before he pretty much disappeared.

The end of his run on the show was related to one of the biggest scandals to ever hit the Discovery Channel, and it led to a major lawsuit filed against his employers.

The suit makes for grim reading, starting with a 2022 filing by Mavar claiming that for a period of about two weeks from December 2020 to January 2021, he had been in serious pain while on the Northwestern.

The suit further claimed that Mavar was seriously and permanently injured when, following repeated reports of pain and discomfort as well as an examination aboard the vessel by Northwestern’s agent, he suffered a ruptured appendix while in the service of the vessel.

In 2023, that was compounded by more lawsuits that the Northwestern filed against the companies contracted to provide medical care to the crews.

In the time since, curious fans have tried to determine what else has been going on with Mavar, with some saying they’ve seen him spending his summers in Bristol Bay as the captain of his own salmon boat, the Miss Colleen.

The most tragic update arrived in June 2024, when it was announced that Mavar had died at the age of 59 at a hospital in King Salmon, Alaska.

His nephew Jake Anderson revealed that he had suffered a heart attack while he was on a ladder at a boatyard where he ran his fishing business on March 6, 2024.

Former Northwestern crew member Matt Bradley posted a photo of himself on Facebook along with the caption, “Happy birthday to me, 52, who would have ever thought I’d make it this far.”

That wasn’t just a reference to the dangerous nature of Bradley’s job.

Back in 2017, he sat down for a candid interview with Windward Way recovery advocate Jeremy Broadrick, explaining that although he’d been on the Northwestern for more than 10 years, the good money he made was a curse rather than a blessing.

The boat was a drug-free zone, but once he was off, he found himself caught up in a vicious cycle.

As he put it, “My logic, even though it sounds backwards, was that the boat was the most boring place in the world to be loaded, that kept me sober for five or six months, and then I get back to the city and think maybe I can try the game again for a couple weeks.”

Bradley eventually went into rehab and started volunteering to help others with addiction issues.

By 2020, he was back at sea, this time on The Saga.

It was explained on the Deadliest Catch World Facebook page that he had initially taken some time off to help his wife run her business, but by the time he decided to go back out, there weren’t any available spots on the Northwestern.

So fellow Northwestern alumnus Jake Anderson brought him on board The Saga, and Bradley was able to get back on the water.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or by contacting SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).