“Deadliest Catch” star wants to ‘rebel’ against suggestion he should retire over health concerns

Key Points

• Deadliest Catch star Sig Hansen is addressing the retirement speculation.

• The captain of the Bering sea crabbing vessel made it clear that he doesn’t plan on stepping away anytime soon.

• “Time is limited, so I want to keep doing it while I can,” who has suffered several health scares over the past few years.

The captain of the F/V Northwestern isn’t ready to say goodbye to his seafaring days.

Longtime Deadliest Catch star Sig Hansen recently told PEOPLE that he is well aware of all the chatter surrounding his age and health. But as far as he’s concerned, retirement is still a few years away.

“I keep hearing those rumors myself. The more I hear that, the more I kind of want to rebel and not do that,” Hansen replied when asked if he has plans to step away in the Thursday interview. “I don’t see retiring anytime soon.”

He continued, “Obviously, I want to see my daughter [Captain Mandy Hansen] move in and partake more, but she had her children, our grandchildren, so that didn’t happen right away. My son-in-law Clark [Pederson] has been stepping up more and more, and he’s perfectly capable. But for me, that’s still kind of an ego thing and I don’t want to retire just yet.”

Hansen, who turned 60 in April, sparked concern among fans after season 21 of the Discovery series ended with a frightening medical emergency. The episode filmed in 2025 saw Hansen collapse on his Bering Sea crab fishing vessel; he was then rushed to the hospital, where doctors encouraged the ship captain to reconsider retirement. Prior to that, Hansen suffered a heart attack in 2016.

Despite the health concerns, Hansen said he can’t quite imagine stepping away from the sea.

“I know time is limited, so I want to keep doing it while I can,” he told the outlet. “I think there’s a little ego involved. And I don’t want anybody knocking me off my throne just yet. I know there’s a line of people waiting, but I’m not ready for that.”

Hansen added that even when the time does come for him to hand the reins over to someone else, he can’t imagine being wholly disconnected from the job.

“I don’t think I could ever fully retire. Even if someone else was running the boat, your mind is still active,” he said. “You’re thinking about the weather, where they’re at. You can never turn it off. I don’t think I’d respect myself if I could just walk away from it completely.”

Hansen has previously gone back and forth on the subject of his eventual retirement, often hinting that it is quite a while away, while on other occasions, admitting to giving it some serious thought. Just last year, Hansen told PEOPLE that fear of death had been weighing on his choice.

“I think I’ve got a few more years left in me. I think about it all the time, and when I do think about ‘retiring,’ it’s only because I’ve lost so many people, and I’m more fearful every time we go out on the water,” he admitted. “Part of it is just, you think about your own mortality, and I’m fearful.”

He added, “I don’t have the same mentality I did as before, where you look at everything as a challenge. And it’s still challenging, but it’s not the same.”

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The current season of Deadliest Catch is grappling with a particularly heartbreaking story: the death of crew member Todd Meadows, the 25-year-old deckhand who fell overboard the fishing vessel Aleutian Lady on Feb. 25. He was recovered by his fellow crew members, who attempted to resuscitate him, but he remained unresponsive. He died of “probably hypothermia” after being submerged in the freezing waters.

The premiere episode of season 22 paid tribute to Meadows, who has also remained present throughout the season via footage captured prior to the accident.

Deadliest Catch airs on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel.

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