Deadliest Catch: What Happened To The Cornelia Marie?

A fan favorite from almost every other season of the show, the Cornelia Marie vessel is absent from Season 19 of the "Deadliest Catch," a Discovery reality series chronicling the dangerous crab fishing industry in the Bering Sea. This happened once before — in Season 13 — but the boat returned one season later. The Marie also showed up in the "Catch" spin-off, "Deadliest Catch: Bloodline." As of 2023, its whereabouts are unknown.

Indicating the boat's popularity, @CNLastro tweeted a picture of the boat near Valdez, Alaska. "So cool seeing a boat i've watched on tv for years wandering off into the harbor!" the post read. With the Cornelia Marie now gone, many are left wondering: What happened to it?

From Season 2 of "Deadliest Catch," the Cornelia Marie was captained by Phil Harris (pictured), but Harris died suddenly in Season 6 of the show. After Harris died, the Marie came back the next year, skippered by other people. Four years later, it was helmed by Harris' son, Josh Harris, but by Season 13, the Cornelia Marie was nowhere to be found.  

A 2016 Facebook post from Captain Josh Harris explained the temporary loss of its starring role. "This was not our decision ... this was simply a decision made by production [at] Discovery," he said. "[Discovery] have creative control over pretty much everything that airs in 'Deadliest Catch,' and we respect that. We are fishermen and we will be doing what we love to do this king crab season, but we'll be doing it alone," he added.

With the Cornelia Marie back by Season 14 — this time co-captained by Josh Harris and Casey McManus — Harris offered insight into the vessel's one-year break from filming. (The Marie still worked the crab season that year, he said.) Speaking with Yahoo! Entertainment, Josh said that during the break, he had family issues to contend with like the death of his grandfather, Captain Grant Harris, and the substance use issues and assault faced by his brother, Jake Harris (pictured, above left).

After original Cornelia Marie captain Phil Harris' sudden death, Josh and his brother, Jake Harris, tried and failed to buy the boat, but by Season 14, Jake and co-captain McManus had an ownership stake, Country Living reports. Referring to the Season 13 departure, Josh continued (via Yahoo! Entertainment), "I had a lot of family issues going on. I had [multiple] people in ICU at the same time, and that put a kibosh on things — I had to be home. Going to visit everybody in ICU isn't exactly a fun time or stuff that necessarily needs to be filmed."

Josh also mentioned he hoped his brother, Jake, might return to crabbing once his personal issues were dealt with. "[N]obody wants to see this boat just disappear. They want to see the whole legacy keep going ... [W]e're definitely back, and we're ready to show the world what we can do at full force, a little bit smarter, and with a lot better boat," he said.

Little else is known about the status of the Cornelia Marie other than its absence from "Deadliest Catch" Season 19. In 2022, MarineTraffic.com recorded the Cornelia Marie moored in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, based on the most recent update. Meanwhile, VesselFinder listed the famous vessel on the West Coast of North America around that same time.

Though it won't have a prominent place in Season 19 of the series, one "Deadliest Catch" fan reportedly spotted it in the background of one scene with the name blurred out. "[L]ongtime ['Deadliest Catch'] fans will know [the Cornelia Marie] when they see her, blurred or not," they wrote on Reddit, so it may still be working in the area. Another reportedly saw the boat in the season trailer, per Distractify.

Cornelia captain Josh Harris himself is also gone, embroiled in a sex abuse controversy dating from 1998 when he was 16 years old, The U.S. Sun reports. Like the Cornelia Marie, Discovery Channel was similarly tight-lipped about Harris' departure. "We've been made aware of this issue. Josh will not appear in future episodes of this series." a representative told The U.S. Sun.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

[Featured image by NOAA Photo Library via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]