Nick Mavar, star of “Deadliest Catch,” dies at 59

Nick Mavar, a salmon fisherman known for his tenacity and resourcefulness who also appeared as a deckhand on the Discovery Channel’s extreme fishing reality show “Deadliest Catch,” died Thursday at a hospital in King Salmon, Alaska. He was 59.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Julie (Hanson) Mavar. His nephew, Jake Anderson, said Mr. Mavar suffered a heart attack on Thursday while standing on a ladder at a shipyard in Naknek, Alaska, where he operated his fishing business, and fell onto a dry dock.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, Anderson said.

The Bristol Bay Borough Police Department in Naknek confirmed Mr. Mavar’s death but declined to provide further details Friday evening.

“Deadliest Catch,” which follows crab fishermen in their grueling and sometimes brutal work off the coast of Alaska, is one of the highest-rated shows on cable television, attracting millions of viewers.

The show premiered in 2005 and Mr. Mavar appeared in 98 episodes and worked on a fishing boat called F/V Northwestern until 2021.

Mr. Mavar left the show during filming of an expedition in 2020 after his appendix burst, revealing a cancerous tumor, Mr. Anderson said.

Mr Mavar was also injured while filming an episode in 2011 when a large hook came loose during a violent storm and hit him in the face, breaking his nose.

In the fishing community, Mr. Mavar was known for overcoming adversity, including cancer and a previous heart attack, said Mr. Anderson, who appeared on “Deadliest Catch” while crabbing with Mr. Mavar and other members of his family in Bristol Bay.

Nickola Mavar Jr. was born on October 21, 1964 in San Pedro, California, to Nickola Mavar Sr. and Maureen (Whelan) Mavar.

He grew up in a fishing family; his father was a fisherman who emigrated from Croatia in 1959. While studying mechanical engineering in California, the elder Mr. Mavar initially fished part-time before becoming a professional fisherman, according to an interview as part of an oral history program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

When the younger Mavar began fishing himself in the early 1990s, the permit and fishing fees were not enough to afford a fully functional boat, Anderson says.

Lacking dish soap and sponges, Mr. Mavar often washed his dishes with Windex, slept in garbage bags to stay dry in a flooded boat and hauled in the net by hand because of broken hydraulics, Mr. Anderson said.

“You could give the guy a tin bucket and he could catch fish with it,” he said. “You could give him a bicycle and he could float it.”

One of Mr. Mavar’s boats, named after his sister, Miss Colleen, was bought from his father when he retired, Mr. Anderson said. Soon after, he was operating a fishery in Alaska and later took a job with a boat owner, Sig Hansen, on the Northwestern, who led him to the show.

“The death of Nick Mavar spread like wildfire in the fishing community,” Mr Hansen wrote on social media, adding that Mr Mavar had worked on his family’s boat for more than 25 years and was a good friend.

After leaving Northwestern, Mr. Mavar captained his own salmon boat in Bristol Bay and frequently played golf with Ms. Mavar, whom he married in 2021, Mr. Anderson said.

In addition to Mrs. Mavar and his father, Mr. Mavar is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Myles and Emme Mavar, a stepdaughter, Jensen Weynands, two brothers, Brian and John, and a sister, Colleen.

During his nearly two decades on television, Mr. Anderson said, Mr. Mavar didn’t care much about the fame that came from being on the show.

“He was a fisherman through and through,” Mr Anderson said, “and the camera was just there.”

Emmett Lindner contributed to the reporting.