While Hansen, 59, has spent decades navigating the brutal, icy waters of the Bering Sea, he told Fox News Digital that it\u2019s not just the storms and freezing temperatures that have put his life at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The veteran crab fisherman got candid about the dangerous decisions he’s made at sea, including one call driven by ego that nearly cost him everything.<\/p>\n
\u2018DEADLIEST CATCH\u2019 STAR SIG HANSEN ADMITS FEAR OF DEATH IS MAKING HIM RETHINK RETIREMENT PLANS<\/a><\/p>\n Northwestern Captain Sig Hansen posing on Adak Island. “Deadliest Catch” airs Fridays at 8pm on Discovery Channel. (Discovery Channel)<\/p>\n “Well, it was the icing down\u2026 that was ego-driven,” Hansen remarked. “And when you’re ego-driven, and you’re worried if you want to make more money and your greed is thinking more than your common sense, it’s not good.”<\/p>\n “When you’re ego-driven, and you’re worried if you want to make more money and your greed is thinking more than your common sense, it’s not good.”<\/p>\n \u2014 Captain Sig Hansen<\/p>\n Hansen reflected on a career full of high-stakes decisions and even higher consequences. Despite surviving some of the most treacherous fishing conditions, he admitted there are moments he\u2019ll never stop regretting.<\/p>\n WATCH: \u2018DEADLIEST CATCH\u2019 STAR SIG HANSEN REVEALS HIS BIGGEST REGRETS, MISTAKES FROM DANGEROUS CAREER<\/p>\n “There\u2019s a lot of regrets. I mean, good Lord, I had a heart attack at sea\u2026 Maybe I should have hung up the spurs a long time ago,” Hansen said. “And to a fisherman, it’s always that one bad season, right? So, there’s a lot of regrets. Made a lot of mistakes. But we’ve been fortunate, haven\u2019t lost anybody and everybody’s OK. So that\u2019s good.”<\/p>\n One near-tragic moment from early in his career that still haunts him was a mistake that led to a crew member\u2019s serious injury.<\/p>\n Hansen said one mistake from early in his career led to a crew member’s serious injury.\u00a0 (Discovery Channel)<\/p>\n “There was one guy that got hurt. I won’t say the name. That was many years ago. I think I was like 27, 28 years old,” Hansen recalled. “It was after a storm… I saw the wave coming, and then I didn’t manage to hit the alarm\u2026 [to] notify him. When it hit him, it knocked him clean across the deck, and he really did damage to his back.”<\/p>\n Though the crew member recovered and returned to fishing, the accident shook Hansen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018DEADLIEST CATCH\u2019 STAR SIG HANSEN ON CHALLENGE OF KEEPING MEN ALIVE IN HIT SERIES<\/a><\/p>\n “Sometimes you’re not talking minutes \u2014 you’re talking seconds to where things can happen. It did, and I learned a valuable lesson.”<\/p>\n Captain Sig Hansen’s boat, Northwestern, at dock with a full stack of pots. (Discovery Channel)<\/p>\n Hansen said his takeaway from that boating accident was not to be distracted in the wheelhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It was that one split second… you take it for granted, and that’s what happened. And after that, I never played music up there ever again,” he laughed. “At least while I\u2019m fishing.”<\/p>\n WATCH: \u2018DEADLIEST CATCH\u2019 STAR SIG HANSEN SHARES THE DANGERS HE\u2019S FACED AT SEA THIS SEASON<\/p>\n Even with decades of experience under his belt, the ocean has continued to humble Hansen \u2014 most notably during a terrifying moment when his boat began to ice over<\/a> in sub-zero conditions.<\/p>\n Then there was the fire \u2014 a moment caught on camera and made all the more intense by the fact that his daughter, Mandy, was on board.<\/p>\n “We had a fire on board\u2026 My daughter was with us, and so that really is frightening,” he shared with Fox News Digital. “I keep thinking back \u2014 had that fire broke out like an hour earlier, I think we\u2019d have been in big, big trouble.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Luckily, the crew was alert and ready, the “Deadliest Catch” star explained.<\/p>\n “We managed because the guys were so attentive. And when the fire broke out, they were already ready to start fishing on deck… But they just had been in their bunk sleeping.”<\/p>\n LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n Northwestern deckhand Clark Pederson sorting crab on the table. (Discovery Channel)<\/p>\n Hansen\u2019s time at sea has tested not just his physical endurance, but his heart \u2014 both literally and figuratively.\u00a0<\/p>\n He suffered a heart attack on the job, and it was that health scare \u2014 along with the tragic loss of the F\/V Destination in 2017 \u2014 that first made him question whether it was time to walk away from the ocean for good.<\/p>\n Since then, he’s been more cautious and more aware of what’s at stake, as he told Fox News Digital what retirement may look like for him in the future.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been thinking about it ever since\u2026 more fearful when you put pots on the boat, more fearful for everybody else,” he said. “And then you start thinking, my wife has spent decades waiting for me. Why not\u2026 give the last whatever I got to her. That’s what I’m doing.”<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n Captain Hansen told Fox News Digital, “my wife has spent decades waiting for me. Why not\u2026 give the last whatever I got to her. That’s what I’m doing.” (Brian To\/WireImage)<\/p>\n In Season 21 of “Deadliest Catch,” Hansen teamed up with returning captain Johnathan Hillstrand as the two headed to the abandoned Adak Island in search of a rumored giant king crab.<\/p>\n Co-captaining the Time Bandit, the veteran fishermen kicked off a modern-day gold rush \u2014 but the race for the rare crab took a dangerous turn<\/a> when chaos erupted aboard the Titan Explorer and forced Captain Jake Anderson\u2019s crew to abandon ship.<\/p>\n As the crews pushed into uncharted waters to secure the lucrative haul, they were met with brutal conditions and dangerous mechanical failures \u2014 turning the high-stakes hunt for crab into a fight for survival.<\/p>\n “Deadliest Catch” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on Discovery Channel.<\/p>\n![\"Captain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/deadliest-catch-captain-sig.jpg\")
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