Deadliest Catch: where are they now? Twenty-two seasons on, one skipper just swapped the wheelhouse for flipping houses
Deadliest Catch cast update: which captains are in the wheelhouse for season 22, who has stepped away from the Bering Sea, and what the fleet's veterans are doing now.
Deadliest Catch has now been on telly for over two decades, which means there are adults legally allowed to buy rum who have never known a world without Sig Hansen shouting at crab. Season 22 kicked off in May with the fleet chasing a rare strain of red king crab 225 miles north to St George Island — and with a cast sheet that looks rather different from the glory days. So, roll call.
Still in the wheelhouse
The current captains are Sig Hansen, Jake Anderson, Keith Colburn, Johnathan Hillstrand and Rick Shelford. Jake's season 22 arc alone is a Greek tragedy with bait: per Discovery's own announcement, he starts the season having lost both his boat and his marriage, goes back to being a deckhand for the first time in eleven years, then gets a shot at restoring the legendary Cornelia Marie. Sig, meanwhile, is deploying underwater drones on covert scouting missions, because apparently the Bering Sea needed a spy thriller subplot.
The skipper with a stack of paint swatches
Which brings us to "Wild" Bill Wichrowski, the headline act of this update. After announcing a prostate cancer diagnosis at the end of season 19 and fishing through treatment, Bill posted in February 2025 that he appeared to be cancer-free — while admitting the hormone therapy had humbled him a bit:
"Feels like the clock has caught up. Maybe small price to pay," he wrote, via TV Insider.
Then, in January 2026, came the retirement post — along with the reveal that his new hobby of choice is flipping houses. Yes. The man who spent thirty-odd years wrestling 800-pound pots in hurricane seas is now going to browse laminate flooring. I'd watch that spin-off tomorrow.
Except — plot twist — Bill hasn't fully left. He pops up in season 22 helping guide Sig through the new fishing grounds, and when a fan asked whether he'd genuinely retired, his reply was five words of pure crab-fisherman cinema:
"Maybe. Ocean can call you back."
The rest of the fleet, briefly
- Andy Hillstrand left after season 19 and has largely retreated from public life, though brother Johnathan fishes on.
- Josh Harris hasn't been on the mothership since the Bloodline spin-off wrapped; the Cornelia Marie's story now runs through Jake.
- Phil Harris, the boat's beloved original captain, died in 2010 — and the show has never quite stopped orbiting his absence.
Twenty-two seasons, one house-flipping skipper, and an ocean that keeps calling people back. Some formats simply refuse to sink.