‘Deadliest Catch’ Star Sig Hansen Breaks Silence After Frightening Medical Emergency

Deadliest Catch viewers and doctors have recommended that Sig Hansen consider retirement after the fisherman suffered a scary medical emergency on Friday’s (October 31) Season 21 finale. But what does Hansen himself have to say on the matter?

Speaking to People, Hansen admitted that retirement has become a more realistic possibility despite once saying he would never hang up his skipper’s cap.

“I’m a fisherman — you’ve got to remember, you’re talking to a professional liar here,” he told the outlet, referring to his past claims that he wouldn’t retire. “I lie for a living. You do know that, right?”

In Friday’s finale, Hansen was rushed to the hospital after he collapsed aboard his Northwestern fishing vessel. Hansen, who has previously suffered two heart attacks, met with a doctor, where he explained he’d been up for a day and a half and drinking around 15-20 cups of coffee. He also admitted he was still smoking.

The doctor encouraged Hansen to quit smoking and cut back on caffeine, and suggested it might be time for the 59-year-old fisherman to consider retirement. While Hansen has always been resistant to the idea, he has started to reconsider.

“I think I’ve got a few more years left in me,” he told People. “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. And so that’s very true, a part of it is just, you think about your own mortality, and I’m fearful.”

Deadliest Catch has seen its fair share of deaths over the years, including Captain Phil Harris, who suffered a stroke during the sixth season. Harris died days later in the hospital from an intracranial hemorrhage. Following Harris’ passing, he was replaced by Captain Tony Lara, who later died of a heart attack in Sturgis, South Dakota.

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Since becoming a grandfather, Hansen said his priorities have started to change. “I don’t have the same mentality I did as before, where you look at everything as a challenge,” he shared. “I’ve been there, done that, and now I want to spend more time with my family, my wife [June]. Look at all the years and decades that she’s given up for me, waiting. It’s got to go the other way.”

He stated that retirement is “obvious” and “going to happen,” noting, “I’ve got four grandkids now. I used to laugh at all these old-timers when they brag about their grandkids and talk about how that’s their whole world. I’m like, ‘You guys are nuts. Can’t we talk about fishing?’ And now, I’m one of those guys. Can’t help it. And I love it. I really do.”

If Hansen does decide to step away from the fishing industry, he will be leaving it in good hands, as his daughter, Mandy, has recently started captaining her own vessel.

“Mandy is a go-getter, she’s got the right attitude,” Hansen stated. “If she does want to take over permanently, or her husband, Clark, who’s with us as well, and he’s doing a tremendous job, I don’t have a problem with it.”