After Decades of Storms, Captain Sig Hansen Says Farewell to the Sea That Made Him a Legend
I knew it was time to go’: Sig Hansen chokes up as he bids farewell to Deadliest Catch after decades of storms and loss
Sig Hansen has spent the better part of the past two decades, risking life and limb to pull fish and crab from the icy waters of the Bering Sea on the hit reality series “Deadliest Catch.” And those who’ve been watching “Deadliest Catch” since the early days know the fearless captain has regularly been seen navigating the F/V Northwestern with a lit cigarette tucked between his fingers. But according to Hansen, those days are long gone, as he finally gave up smoking.
The famed fisherman made that claim during a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, telling the publication he kicked the habit after a harrowing near death experience. As Hansen recounted the ordeal, he ended up in the hospital after a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic left him struggling to breathe. Eventually, the reality star had a cardiac event. The heart attack was not Hansen’s first, with the reality star noting the cardiac event likely would’ve killed him had it not occurred on dry land. But even after having his second heart attack, Hansen admitted he still wasn’t ready to quit smoking. In fact, he actually got caught puffing away during his hospital stay.
“I was in the hallway smoking. They caught me,” he said, adding, “I looked like the biggest a**hole.” Hansen then claims he hasn’t picked up a cigarette since the hospital incident. And “Deadliest Catch” fans can attest he’s kept true to those words in ensuing seasons of the show — at least while the cameras are rolling.
Hansen admits it will be much harder to quit fishing than smoking
As Sig Hansen noted during his Entertainment Weekly chat, it initially proved easier not to smoke at work because he’s too busy doing other important things as the captain of the Northwestern to think about it. The same apparently cannot be said for his downtime, however, with Hansen dryly quipping, “It’s worse at home. I’m a bigger a**hole at home than I am on the boat.”
Nonetheless, Hansen has apparently persevered in his endeavor to quit smoking for good. But the fifth generation fisherman went on to tell EW it will likely be far more difficult to give up fishing, despite the fact that he believes he’s close to doing so. “For me, I’m done,” he boldly stated, adding, “I got a foot out the door.” Hansen would later confirm his health scare helped put things in perspective, saying, “You only get so many chances.” Even still, Hansen boasts his ego will likely keep him in the captains’ chair a while longer. “I can’t stop, that’s the problem,” he said, before noting, “You want to stop, but the ego portion won’t let me stop.”
The fiery captain went on to joke it might be easier to leave the fishing game behind if he could find a good shrink in Dutch Harbor, Alaska to help him work through the ego issues. As it stands, several years have passed since Hansen’s EW chat, and he is still very much the man in charge of the Northwestern. He also remains one of the best-loved captains in the “Deadliest Catch” lineup. And we can only assume neither of those facts have helped Sig Hansen check his ego very much.
