Deadliest Catch star Josh Harris said he “resented” fishing for a time and considered quitting after his father, Phil Harris, died in 2010. He considered spending more time with his family and realized he was not making as much money as he did before. Harris also reconnected with his estranged brother Shane in Deadliest Catch for Season 18, which debuted on Discovery in April.
Harris considered leaving fishing behind “every day” after his father died to spend more time with his family, he told Fox News last week. “I resented fishing for quite some time. And the money’s different. It’s not the same as it used to be,” Harris explained. “We have to actually work really hard for everything we’ve got, and there’s no room for air.”
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“Things were a little grim there for a bit” for Harris, but the Hillstrand brothers convinced him to return. They “really picked me up, dusted me off, and gave me that want and will, and that drive to get back in the industry,” Harris said. He also remembered that he is not fishing just for himself.
“If I work hard right now, we obtain as much money as we can, then I’ll be able to be around my kids in the teenager age, which is really going to need some direction,” Harris told Fox News. “That’s my goal. Just a couple more years of hard work and then I’ll be able to maybe take some time off and really spend it with the kids. That’s what I’m shooting for.”
In Season 18, Harris reconnected with his older brother Shane. When they met again, childhood memories came flooding back to Harris. “He’s a lot more ripped than I am and he can outrun me, but really a great guy. And he hasn’t changed a bit,” Harris said of Shane. “He’s still a goofball, a hard worker, and definitely full of life. And that was a good thing because we needed all that for the season that was coming up.”
The most important lesson Harris learned from his father was to never give up or quit. “You go until the wheels fall off. That’s how it goes,” he told Fox News. “He’s just got a lot of heart and a lot of drive and there is no quit. A lot of fighting the dog, and we’ll fight until the death. That’s just the way it works.”
Phil Harris died in February 2010 at age 53. He suffered a stroke while offloading crab at Saint Paul Island, Alaska on Jan. 29, 2010. He died from an intracranial hemorrhage days later. Deadliest Catch Season 6 featured the final footage of Phil at work. He was survived by his sons Harris, Shane, and Jacob from his first marriage to Mary Harris. All 18 seasons of Deadliest Catch are available to stream on Discovery+.