What Happened To The Destination On Deadliest Catch?
Considering the fact that most reality television shows have a reputation for being scripted for the sake of drama, it's honestly rather unfortunate that Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" manages to live up to its name so often. The series centers around the struggles of various commercial fishing boats working throughout the Bering Sea, and its blunt title derives from the dangerous conditions those crews have to face during each fishing season. Commercial fishing has one of the highest fatality rates of any occupation in the United States, especially in the volatile waters that the crew from "Deadliest Catch" work in (via Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Indeed, it seems like tragedy strikes all too often on "Deadliest Catch," though surprisingly, almost all of the deaths within the series are unrelated to the highly dangerous work that the cast members undertake. "Deadliest Catch" crew members Mahlon Reyes and Nick McGlashan both lost their lives due to a drug overdose, and the show's producer, Joe McMahon, was shot and killed in 2015 (via Heavy). The most prominent death in the series was that of Captain Phil Harris, who ran the Cornelia Marie and suffered a stroke while working on the boat in 2010 (via The New York Times).
While most of the actual fishing-related accidents that occur to the team from "Deadliest Catch" seem to occur off-screen, that doesn't mean they don't still happen. One horrific example is the disappearance of the F/V Destination in 2017, which caused the death of all six crew members aboard.
The Destination sank near St. George Island, Alaska
In the Season 13 episode "Lost at Sea," the entire fleet of F/V Northwestern is notified about F/V Destination's disappearance, and the U.S. Coast Guard is sent to try and locate the missing vessel. According to the Anchorage Daily News, it's believed that the ship capsized after becoming weighed down by an immense amount of ice, and its six crew members Captain Jeff Hathaway, Darri Seibold, Kai Hamik, Larry O'Grady, Raymond Vincler, and Charles G. Jones all perished in the horrific tragedy.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Chris O'Neil attributed the disaster to the ship's lack of preparation before heading into dangerous waters. "The captain's decision to proceed into heavy freezing spray conditions – without ensuring the Destination had a margin of stability to withstand the accumulation of ice – led to the loss of the vessel," said O'Neill during an interview with KUCB.
Though it may not have happened on camera, the sinking of the Destination is a grim reminder of the danger that the cast of "Deadliest Catch" faces each and every day.