A “Deadliest Catch” cast member is revealing how Todd Meadows died after going overboard into the ocean while inside a 900-pound pot.
Deckhand Trey John Green III gave Page Six a detailed account of what he claims happened aboard the Aleutian Lady fishing vessel on the Bering Sea approximately 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor in Alaska in the late afternoon of Feb. 25.
According to Green, the notoriously treacherous water was actually “calm” that day, even though it was “only a degree or two above freezing.”
Green told us that many of the boat’s crew members had taken turns getting into the pots — baited, rigid traps used to catch shellfish — to sift through crabs retrieved from the ocean.
Green alleged that fellow deckhand Meadows, 25, was still inside one of the pots when it went “over the rail” and back into the water, claiming the other crew members screamed when they saw what was happening.
“It’s one of those things that none of us really understand. I don’t know what happened,” Green, 30, explained.
“So that’s what Todd was doing. The pot is sitting in the launcher, and Todd was actually inside the pot.”
Green emphasized that Meadows was “in the right place at the right time,” “doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing” when the accident occurred.
“We’re like, ‘Holy crap, he’s gonna sink to the bottom. We’re not gonna have any way to get this pot back up,’” Green recalled thinking, adding that he immediately ran to the back of the boat, climbed on top of the pots and saw Meadows.
“Somehow, some way, I don’t know — he was a fighter because he made it out of that pot,” he marveled, noting that Meadows was “swimming” and “trying to hang in there.”
According to Green, Meadows was in the water for only “three or four minutes” before their designated rescue swimmer, Steve Porter, got his “lifeless” body back on the boat. What followed for the next “half hour, 45 minutes” was an attempted rescue, as Page Six previously reported.
An official cause of death has not yet been released. Notably, Meadows’ mother, Angela Meadows, told TMZ that her son took a blow to the head while working aboard the Aleutian Lady about a month before he died. He suffered a concussion and spent a week recovering at home in Washington before returning to work. It’s unclear whether that head injury played any kind of role in his death.
As for Green, he explained to us that the crew was about “12 hours away” from Dutch Harbor when they exhausted all rescue efforts, which included performing CPR and using a defibrillator. He said they then made the difficult decision to wrap Todd’s body in a tarp, place it in the freezer to preserve it and head back to town.
“Everybody did everything they could do,” Green insisted before admitting that none of the crew members — including Todd — were wearing a lifejacket.
Green went on to claim that “everything” that happened on the boat that day was caught on camera by Discovery Channel, which was on the tail end of filming for Season 22 of its popular reality series “Deadliest Catch.”
Reached for comment, a rep for the network told Page Six, “This remains an active US Coast Guard investigation. We are assisting in their efforts and cannot comment at this time.”
Meanwhile, a rep for the USCG told us that the organization is “investigating the case to determine the causes and provide the necessary feedback to prevent similar accidents from reoccurring.
“The Coast Guard Investigating Officer is currently working with a team of qualified marine casualty investigators to compile evidence. The Investigating Officer will then create an official account and timeline of the incident to determine: (1) the cause or contributing factors, (2) evidence of misconduct or negligence, (3) whether there was a failure of material, and (4) if any personnel from the Coast Guard or other government agency caused or contributed to the cause of the incident.
“This process is vital to drawing accurate conclusions and initiating any necessary corrective actions to prevent similar accidents and casualties from occurring in the future.”
The rep said “findings will not be disclosed while the case is open” and that the USCG “does not assign a timeline for completing an investigation.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com ’
