Exclusive: ‘Deadliest Catch’ Captain Josh Harris Opens up About His Return to Bering Sea

After a year away from the Bering Sea, Captain Josh Harris admits he picked “one hell of a” time to return.

The Deadliest Catch fisherman stepped away from the crabber lifestyle during last season of the Discovery series to take care of his family after the death of his grandfather, but returned to captain the Cornelia Marie during the Tuesday, April 10 season premiere.

“It feels pretty good,” he told PopCulture.com prior to the season premiere. “I’m just happy to be fishing again. It’s just a beautiful thing. I had to take some time off there, lost my grandfather, so I took all last year off, and yeah, that kind of sucked. But I’m back in the saddle again, I feel pretty good about it, and things are going well.”

After a year away from fishing, Harris returned to a year plagued with some of the biggest waves the Bering Sea has seen in 150 years due to the recent supermoon event.

“Well I picked one hell of a season to come back to,” Harris told PopCulture. “You know, we had this supermoon event and it caused all these massive tides, which in turn meant we had a lot of injuries and a lot of craziness, and it was hard to catch crab and all this random stuff that’s happened this year.”

He continued, “But as far as I know, everyone has all their toes and all their fingers on my boat. I’m pretty sure.”

Harris’ return was met with a little skepticism from the other captains initially, but he told PopCulture that by the end of the season, there are a few people who will have to “eat their words.”

But the long-awaited return of the fan favorite captain wasn’t without its moments of levity.

Harris and Captain of the Saga Jake Anderson started what promises to be a prank war for the ages on Tuesday’s premiere, when Harris’ “ninjas” expanded an inflatable life raft in the galley of the Saga, only to be pelted by eggs courtesy of the Saga crew in return.

Fans were thrilled to see the Harris making his grand return to the hit series:

Deadliest Catch airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery. And don’t forget to watch Deadliest Catch: The Bait at 8 p.m. ET prior to the show.

Photo credit: Discovery