Nick Mavar, a fisherman who was a deckhand on the reality TV show “Deadliest Catch,” died Thursday in Alaska.
He was 59.
Mavar, who was born in Croatia and worked aboard the F/V Northwestern, suffered a medical emergency in the town of Naknek, the Police Chief of the Bristol Bay Borough Police Department told Deadline.
Mavar was taken to a hospital where he died of natural causes, the chief said.
From 2005 to 2021, he appeared on 98 episodes of the ongoing Discovery Channel series about the brutal conditions faced by commercial crab fishermen.
The fisherman could also be seen on its spinoffs such as “Deadliest Catch: Siberian Winter” and “Deadliest Catch: The Bait.”
He left the show abruptly after his appendix ruptured onboard during a December 2020 voyage
The intense medical incident, which was well-documented on the series, led Mavar to sue one of the boat owners, Sig Hansen, and his wife.
Mavar claimed he didn’t receive speedy medical treatment during the pandemic.
Mavar also alleged in his lawsuit that his delayed care resulted in serious complications, including a ruptured appendix that contained a cancerous tumor.
The fisherman’s passing comes just a few years after the deaths of former “Deadliest Catch” co-stars — Mahlon Reyes and Nick McGlashan — in 2020.