Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch concluded its 22nd season on Friday, Sept. 25, by airing the final hours of deckhand Todd Meadows.
Meadows, 25, died on Feb. 25 after falling overboard from the Aleutian Lady into the Bering Sea roughly 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. His death was ruled an accidental drowning with probable hypothermia, coming just one month after he had recovered from a severe concussion sustained on the same vessel.
The season finale opened with a content advisory warning viewers of disturbing material before showing Meadows in an interview recorded earlier that final day. The young fisherman spoke about providing for his three children, aged 1, 2, and 4, and later FaceTimed his family from the galley. During that call, his young daughter urged him to stay safe.
“Oh, I’m being safe,” Meadows replied.
Moments later, screams of “man overboard” echoed from the deck into the wheelhouse where Capt. Rick Shelford immediately began maneuvering the vessel for recovery. He shouted instructions to deploy safety rings and the crane while the crew worked to reach Meadows, who had been clearing crab from a pot just before the equipment went over the side.
“Don’t know how,” deck boss Nicolas “Nico” Huerta told cameras about how the accident occurred.
Meadows was pulled from the water after six minutes and 26 seconds but remained completely unresponsive. The camera deliberately stayed inside the control room as the crew administered CPR on deck for over 20 minutes. Shelford contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and broke down in tears as a producer told him, “He’s gone, Rick.”
A medical officer on the emergency radio line subsequently confirmed that resuscitation efforts had been exhausted.
Fellow deckhand Glen “Steven” Porter emotionally remembered how Meadows would routinely risk reprimands just to make time to FaceTime his children.
“You know where his priorities were, and that f—ing kills my heart,” Porter said.
The network honored an explicit plea from Meadows’ mother, Angela Meadows, who asked that the moment her son fell not be broadcast. Instead of graphic footage, the episode captured the tragedy entirely through Shelford’s perspective in the wheelhouse and the grief-stricken reactions of the crew.
The episode jumped forward ten weeks to conclude with a gathering of Bering Sea captains honoring fallen fishermen. The finale also included final interview footage of Meadows offering advice to his children.
“Work towards your dreams and goals, don’t let anything slow you down,” Meadows told producers. “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Just want my kids to know I want them to work hard and be successful in life.”
Deadliest Catch returns for Season 22 on April 15.