Jake Harris appeared on the early seasons of Deadliest Catch, but left the hit Discovery show about Alaskan crab fishermen in 2012. The son of Phil Harris and brother of Josh Harris was struggling to cope with an intense drug addiction that derailed his career and landed him in trouble with authorities more than once. These days the fisherman is living a very different type of life—here’s what happened to him, and what he’s up to now.
Carry On Phil Harris’ Legacy
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Jake’s father Phil Harris died suddenly in 2010 at just 53 years old. Jake and his brother Josh Harris took over the family business and tried to continue Phil’s legacy, which was shown on Deadliest Catch. “I’m going to be looking at that [captain’s] chair in a different way,” Jake told PEOPLE in a 2010 interview. “We definitely talked about it, but I just didn’t expect this to happen so soon. That’s definitely something where I would take over and take the responsibility.”
Opiate Addiction
Jake struggled to cope after his father’s death and turned to drugs, which he started taking in high school. “In high school I was a skater and it turned out I wasn’t very good,” he told Dr. Drew Pinsky in 2011. “I broke some limbs is how I got addicted to opiates… [I] got a big hole in my heart and tried to fill it up with everything that wasn’t good for it.”
Jake was arrested for hit and run and DUI in March 2010. He returned to Deadliest Catch after the DUI but continued abusing pills while out at sea. He was not part of the season promos in 2013. “My brother’s been going through issues. He’s lost in drugs still,” Josh told HuffPost at the time. “Jake’s gotta take care of his own stuff right now. Deal with his demons.”
Hitting Rock Bottom
Things spiraled for Josh after leaving Deadliest Catch. He was arrested for stealing a car and drug possession in 2017, and sentenced to 18 months on DUI and drug charges in 2019. Josh was arrested again in 2021 for speeding and was booked for felony DUI, driving with a suspended license, and driving without a required ignition interlock, according to TMZ. “Cops say Harris told them he had taken prescribed meds that morning, though the cop wouldn’t say what kind. They suspected he was impaired … and after Harris refused a sobriety test, cops arrested him.”
Family Man
Things have changed for Jake who is now a family man with children, his brother Josh says. The two appeared on Deadliest Catch: Bloodline in 2021 and 2022. “There’s talk about maybe he’s down with us fishing again,” Josh told Patheos. “He’s doing really well. He has a new lady in his life, and she’s got five kids, so he’s a stay-at-home dad, which has been great for him. He’s doing really good. So, we’ll see in the future what his plans are and what’s going to help him with his sobriety. I don’t want him to do anything too crazy and risk having him slip back into the old ways of doing things, but he’s doing just fantastic. He’s happy. He calls me three times a day. It’s hit that point, if he wants to come back, that they’ll let him come back. That will be the biggest story from Deadliest Catch for a long time. That would be great.”
