R.I.P. Nick Mavar: ‘Deadliest Catch’ Alum Dead At 59

Deadliest Catch alum Nick Mavar died on Thursday (June 13), TMZ reports. He was 59.

Bristol Bay Borough Police Department’s Police Chief revealed to the outlet that Mavar had passed from a “medical emergency,” but did not share any further details.

The Police Chief, Jeffrey Eldie, informed Deadline that the medical emergency took place while at a boatyard in Naknek, Alaska, and that Mavar was pronounced dead from natural causes after being taken to the hospital.

Mavar was a deckhand on the F/V Northwestern, appearing in 98 episodes of the reality series from 2005 until 2021, per TMZ. In December 2020, he ruptured his appendix on a voyage, which was featured in episodes that aired in 2021.

This led Mavar to sue the fishing vessel’s owners, citing the “failure to have an adequate plan in place” for him to receive proper medical assistance amid COVID-19 protocols, per Anchorage Daily News. The outlet reported that his complaint alleged that the “delay in competent and adequate examination, testing, and diagnosis” caused the rupture, and also led him to find a cancerous tumor. He was seeking $1 million in damages.

According to Alaska Public Media, another lawsuit was filed against the show’s producers in 2023 by the Northwestern’s owners, whose attorneys wrote that “these COVID protocols limited the exposure of the F/V Northwestern crewmembers to people who were not associated with the television show.”

Mavar also could be spotted in some of the series’ spin-offs such as Deadliest Catch: Siberian Winter and Deadliest Catch: The Bait, per Deadline. As noted by The Daily Mail, Mavar’s most recent Instagram post, a birthday post for his father, was shared in December 2023.

According to Variety, Mavar is survived by his wife, Julia.