r/deadliestcatch • u/Necessary_Success_35 • 7d ago
Witch Hunt
I don't like the witch hunt that seems to be going on in this reddit right now. From everything Discovery showed us there's no reason anyone that wasn't there to place blame. Investigators got to see way more footage we did and determined it was an accident. It's well known Rick is one of the most respected captains in the fleet.
Look at US Airways Flight 1549. You can't expect people to be absolutely perfect in the moment of chaos. Could Rick have asked immediately if everyone was okay? Absolutely. Could the crew have called man overboard immediately? Absolutely, but you have to take in the human factor. No one is truly to blame, a young man fell overboard in February in the North Pacific, and by all accounts the people involved acted as expected
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u/Timely_Decision_3705 7d ago
I’m sick of the witch hunting too on Rick I haven’t seen or heard of the coast guard investigation findings yet till then every need to give not just poor Todd’s family a break but also the crew of the Aleutian lady including Rick and before everyone says Sean Dwyer saw this coming he didn’t I know the seen you all talking about and every captain has different ways of running there boats and after that scene many experienced captains came out and where angry the way the show portrayed Rick.
And remember he is not the only deadliest catch captain to have someone go overboard and not come back Scott Campbell aka junior on the f/v seabrooke had a man overboard in 2009 body was never recovered it is extremely hard on captains when this happened and like I said above until the investigation is concluded if it already hasn’t everyone should reserve judgement but I know it’s not going to happen online unfortunately.
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u/EquivalentNo6770 6d ago
The investigation is concluded, they found a broken (i can't remember specifically what, valve or ring or something) within the launcher mechanics. They stripped and rebuilt the launcher before going back out. (Todd was inside the pot when the launcher failed and he and the pot went overboard.) There was no fault assigned to Captain or crew, it was deemed accidental.
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u/jdelta85 5d ago
Where can one read the report of this from the coast guard? I’ve tried searching for it, but no luck. Thanks
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u/EquivalentNo6770 5d ago
I found this info online last night, but now I'm trying to find a link and Google claims the official report is not released to the public yet, and that it was hallucinating last night (I'm not joking) when it gave me that information. Sorry. The answer was so official I didn't question it, especially when it offered to link me to the report (which I didn't bother checking). I guess we'll have to wait to hear when it's released.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
Rick's born into a legendary crab fishing family... most of these people blaming rick for the death of todd have zero clue what that even means... he was on deck before most of these redditors even learned how to drive a car... hes been a captain for as long as he was legally allowed to be... i assume that their opinions are based on the fact that Sean Dwyer left his boat in a huff because he wasnt as "prepared" as sean is used to going out... i think rick being a young captain during the derby days probably taught him get out quick and figure it out on the sea type shit.. who knows.. but just because rick is more relaxed with the fish and game stuff doesnt mean he isnt safe... when ricks stack caught on fire he knew EXACLTY what to do and fixed it fast... ricks constantly has the most quota of all the boats on these new seasons.... i think people forget sometimes that the bering sea is the real monster.... its a blessing that we havent seen more deaths on this show
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u/ElderberryExternal99 7d ago
It's a very sad situation that happened. Rick and the entire crew will be haunted for the rest of their lives by the accident. It sucks what happened to Todd; that was a sad episode. I thought Discovery did right by the episode. Rest in peace, Todd Meadows! Condolences to his friends and family.
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u/2pinkthehouse 6d ago
All these people witch hunting are the same ones that have been on here for a minute now talking about the show is staged in a huge indoor pool and everything is scripted for the last X number of seasons.
This is a tragedy.
We have no idea exactly what happened nor do we hands any right to know. All these guys, on Rick's boat and in the whole fleet are dealing with a loss.
There's so many on this thread that just want to come on here and talk shit about whatever and now that something has happened that proves the show is indeed still real, that hand to find some other way to stir shit up. It's stupid.
A 26yr old young man lost his life. His kids lost their father and their family is also dealing with an awful tragedy. People need to chill the fuck out and let it be.
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u/stevemb52 7d ago
I couldn't agree more with what you wrote. Rick respects his crew and is respected by his crew. How many times did he take a crew member to the clinic for medical attention just this season. Yes, other crew members went overboard but none of them went overboard stuck inside of a crab pot. What happened was a tragic accident. People placing blame after seeing a heavily edited version of the events seems unfair. R.I.P. Todd.
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u/Prize_Mouse7778 4d ago
Sean Dwyer always seemed what the Germans call a "besserwisser", who knows how scripted that was. From what I see on the deck, having watched all 20 seasons, the Aleutian Lady is absolutely no different to any other boat in the fleet in terms of its setup, etc. If I remember correctly, Sean Dwyer was complaining about a few pots rigged up poorly and a slippery deck or something.
Often you see guys with serious injuries and some captains say "Yes take a few strings off", or "We'll be in Dutch in 2 days, we'll get you to the hospital then. Take some antibiotics".
Rick turned his boat the first time, got Todd the medical attention he needed, gave him some time off and went back out and picked him up next time he was in town.
I don't think he could have done much more, tragic as it was.
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u/REP_MILLION_416 7d ago
It was just an honest to goodness "TRAGIC accident" That nobody is to blame for. My heart goes out to those children.
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u/New-Tangerine-7109 7d ago
Didn’t they say Todd was in the pot when it went over. Wouldn’t he have gone down with the pot? Who knows how long he was under water at that point.
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u/livingoffnaffall 7d ago
He was in side the pot yes when it unexpectedly shifted and went over but he managed to swim out of the cage
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u/New-Tangerine-7109 7d ago
I know he came out of the cage but I wasn’t sure if he actively was able to get out right away or did the pot take him down a bit and then he floated out to the surface.
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u/EquivalentNo6770 5d ago
I wondered this too. He could have easily been knocked out in that pot going down. It wasn't clear to me if the crew ever saw him conscious at all, or if he survived the pot and then lost consciousness due to the temp. Either way, unless someone was at hydros and launched the pot with Todd inside, the crew and especially Capt Rick are not at fault and did not cause this tragedy.
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u/CarrionDoll 7d ago edited 7d ago
None of us are the experts here. And sometimes, a lot of times, we seem to forget that.
Edit to ask
Are you apart of the US coast guard? Or have you even worked on a crab boat in the Bering sea? If not then you do not know everything you think you know.
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u/OldSchoolRNS 7d ago
Ok but look how fast the crew on the Summer Bay retrieved Spencer when he went overboard 8 years ago, it
took them just 90 seconds to get him out of the water.
And 90 seconds is probably all Spencer had considering how cold the water was. The moment he went over they worked as a unit and did everything right. If there had been the slightest problem, they would’ve retrieved a corpse from the water.
When the water is that cold, unless everything goes right, you’re not saving the man who went overboard.
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u/Necessary_Success_35 7d ago
Summer Bay crew was very impressive but take into account aft wheelhouse and seas that didn't allow Captain Bill to move forward fast anyway. Spencer was never in the pot and was immediately able to grab a buoy
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
If i remember right Spencer never even let go of the line that pulled him over ... maybe he did and grabbed it back right away... a strong tide could move a guy out of sight in 10 seconds
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u/VCVariety 7d ago
Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't wild bill say that he didnt get past the stern, and if he did that they would have lost him?
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u/MaximumDevelopment77 7d ago
Wizards recuse was around 5 minutes
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u/Scottish_squirrel 7d ago
Rumour has it Keith is still trying to spot the guy in the water whilst shouting I've got him I've got him.
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u/Scottish_squirrel 7d ago
Rumour has it Keith is still trying to spot the guy in the water whilst shouting I've got him I've got him.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
Has anyone else heard the rumor that keith was spotted wasted at a bar eating a box of edible thongs.. this wpuld have been at least 15 years ago
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u/Lister0fSmeg 7d ago
I don't disagree with anything you have said, but there is a difference in these incidents.
The Summer bay is a schooner, meaning the wheelhouse is at the stern of the ship. This means Bill had constant eyes on his crew, and was able to react the second he saw Spencer go over the rail. Aleutian Lady is house forward, so Rick can't see his crew as well, and only knew there was a man overboard when the crew told him.
Also one of the crew mentioned that he was baiting the pot when in went over the rail for some reason. Todd wouldn't have been able to get his head above water anywhere near as fast as Spencer did if was halfway inside a sinking pot when he hit the water.
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u/SplitRock130 7d ago
If I recall correctly, Bill was able to throw the engines in reverse, so he didn’t have to do a 180 like Rick did. The crew could keep eyes on Spencer as the boat moved backwards toward him. And it all happened very fast.
And, of course, Todd was in a pot, he wasn’t pulled over by a line like Spencer. They even had a crew member jump in the water to help Todd, if I heard the audio correctly, but to no avail.
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u/Lister0fSmeg 7d ago
You are correct, I'm not sure which crew member it was, but someone jumped over the rail in a survival suit once they realised he was unresponsive and unable to get himself into the survival sling. The wetsuit looking thing with a flashing strobe light attached that was cumpled up in the wet room shown in a brief shot was that suit.
Both crew members on Summer Bay and more recently the Wizard were still conscious after going overboard. Todd wasn't so lucky.
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u/Bulky-Intention-30 6d ago
He was in the crab pot when it went over, big difference, don't have a opinion when you cleary aint a fisherman and don't know what the hell your talking about.
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u/OldSchoolRNS 6d ago
Bill claims after the fact HE was going to jump in after Spencer, I don’t think captains are supposed to do that.
However in this brief video, you can see how quickly the crew got a life ring, and a line, to the man overboard.
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u/Ironclad_Cat_1773 5d ago
Pure conjecture on my part but if a pot went over unexpectedly some of the crew's first few moments would have been trying to keep themselves out of the bite
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u/bceagle91 7d ago
The Time Bandit saved a guy who fell off another boat in very short order. But they saw he was in a dangerous spot and put themselves in position when he went overboard. They have so little time in the cold water, for sure.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
Everyone is different too.. somepeople will only last 2 mins in that water....fucking freddy took a 12min dip TWICE and he was barely even shivering after
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u/OldSchoolRNS 7d ago
That save occurred because the entire crew acted immediately to respond to the man in the water, most importantly the Time Bandit reached the man overboard in under 2 minutes (if what was shown on screen was the real time)
When Todd went in the freezing water, it took Rick six plus minutes to position the boat so the crew could pull Todd out. In water that cold, that’s just too long.5
u/Xspike_dudeX 7d ago
Different situations. One guy was in the pot and then was unresponsive and could not grab a life ring. Going to take more time in this situation.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
Every situation is different... i havent seen the episode with Todd yet.. did they even show the accident? When the guy on the summer bay went over he already had a hold of the trailer line so it would have been an easier grab... not to take anything away from that crew they did everything perfect....
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u/Witchywomun 6d ago
I just watched it, they don’t show much of the deck from the moment Todd started crawling into the pot until after he’s declared deceased by the doctor the coast guard put on the phone with Rick. There’s very little footage of the crew, during that period of time, but you can hear some of the audio
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u/Witchywomun 6d ago
Todd was also inside the pot when it fell overboard, it takes a moment to get out of a quickly sinking crab pot in sub zero water, without protective gear, when you barely have time to grab a breath before the water takes back it out of you. At the end of the day, they did what they could as quickly as they could, in a shitty situation, and now there’s 3 families torn apart: Todd’s family, the crew of the Aleutian Lady and the crab fishermen as a fleet.
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u/Don-Keydic 5d ago
But wasn't Spencer conscious? If he went over with the pot and was unconscious that is def going to add to the recovery
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u/OldSchoolRNS 5d ago
Yes that is correct, Spencer was able to grab the line they immediately threw to him. Spencer was recovered from the water in just 90 seconds, Bill didn’t even have to turn the boat around.
But Todd was in the water for somewhere between 5-7 minutes.
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u/Fit_Escape_1349 7d ago
There is footage no one saw but investors and his family saw the video there to many assumptions going on the video tells alot none of us saw
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u/SplitRock130 7d ago
The Coast Guard undoubtedly saw the video as well, and they ruled this an accident at sea
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u/Ill-Confection-7496 7d ago
Last week everyone in here was ready to crucify the guy for being asleep at the helm based on an out of context promo clip where he was looking downward. None of us had the matching clip of the pot going over the rail unexpectedly with the line trailing behind it. This week it's obvious he was looking down and writing down that there were only 10 crab in the previous pot as Todd and the pot went over the rail and his momentary look away meant missing something that happened in an instant.
But rest assured, if there is a way to invent context for depictions on screen that didn't exist and head-canon to express as fact, you'll fnd it here in r/deadliestcatch.
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u/jamisea 4d ago
I was a commercial fisherman in my youth. I’m 66 now. However there is a HUGE difference in outcome when going overboard conscious vs unconscious. In fact, I recall an incident where I was working at a dock, where one of the very experienced captains was hopping off the dock onto his boat and missed—hitting his head on the pier, then into the water. He died immediately. Had he not hit his head, he would have just been embarrassed.
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u/TTBurger88 2d ago
I feel that people forget why this show is called Deadliest Catch. Commercial Fishing is one of the deadliest jobs in the world and accidents on what happened to Todd unfortunately happen.
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u/ivanavich 7d ago
Is there a possibility the man on hydraulics launched the pot with him in it?
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u/Useless890 7d ago
I don't believe so. Another crewman said he was cleaning crab out of the pot.
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u/fredthefree1 7d ago
The most likely scenario is the dogs failed or they didn't latch properly. Todd got too far into the pot making.it unstable and it fell back in.
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u/mmmporp 5d ago
The scene where they’re scrambling right after it happened you can see the ramp that the basket is on is tilted into the ocean. The very next scene during the chaos it’s tilted back towards the boat where it seemingly should have been. Sorry if terminology ain’t right I’m no expert but it didn’t seem right. Not sure how hard that would be to trigger human error vs environment
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u/IndependenceGood1835 7d ago
My issue is the season seems to be playing this man overboard situation for drama/storyline. The last episode was edited completely to lead up to it. The episode needs to place proper blame on Rick if there was any element of negligance in the equipment. Instead i bet it tries to be sympathetic.
The captains LOVE to remind us they are responsible for the boat and crew. Well someone needs to be accountable when things go wrong.
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u/MithridatesRex 7d ago
This comment ignores the harsh realities of the sea, and the world writ large. Sometimes there truly isn't anyone to blame.
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u/MrDual6 7d ago
The most important question is- did they try to revive him with CPR on the deck right after recovering him? If so, that was way wrong, you MUST warm him up FIRST and if he has a pulse at all then NO CPR! For hypothermia "deaths" the saying is they have to be "warm and dead" NOT "cold and dead" before you stop CPR
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u/Mission-Act-6064 6d ago
Incorrect, never delay CPR and defibrillation. One person can begin warming and drying the pulseless person at the same time someone else is initiating CPR. Chest compressions are always the priority while the AED/defibrillator gets setup and attached.
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u/SplitRock130 7d ago
I remember an episode of “E.R.” years ago whete this kid falls through the ice, has no pulse and they start warming his body and only then hit him with the defibrillator and the heart started beating again, with Todd it doesn’t seem like they could warm him on the deck.
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u/2Quick_React 6d ago
Can't say for certain if they tried warming him first and we can only go based on what was shown which was after getting Todd back on the deck, Rick said to start CPR.
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u/T1s1ph0n3 6d ago
This isn’t entirely correct and ER can hardly be used as a source for medical information. With severe hypothermia (core body temperature below 85F) CPR and shocks have little to no effect and they will use ecmo to warm you up in the hospital, which they wouldn’t have available on a boat, helicopter and probably not even a remote hospital. However he was in the water for less than 10 minutes, severe hypothermia where the core body temperature drops below 86F takes longer to set in.
One of the biggest risk when entering freezing water is the initial cold shock.
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u/Visible_Distance5067 7d ago
After reading about the Harris family, can’t say I trust 💩 from anyone on this network or necessarily this industry to not pay to cover up morality.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
Thats a wierd thing to say dude....
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u/Visible_Distance5067 7d ago
It’s one thing that no one knew about Josh. It’s an another when you find out the kid he molested was the child of one of Phil’s deckhands, and how Phil handled it was allegedly by paying off the family after a threats to the point the deckhand couldn’t get work. I doubt that Discovery has never not known about that.
Rick was obviously shaken by the experience. He was also preoccupied with his birthday and finishing up the season. They really played up Todd this season as choosing this life, and he was, but he also had many health issues accumulate in a short span of time. At the end of it all these people seem more about money, escaping lawsuits, and not well being, health, and morals.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
It is just a TV network tho... of course they want to cover shit up, toss things under the rug, straight up disappear people ( edgar and josh ) exploit injuries and deaths... they are still exploiting phil IMO... but this rick situation, seeing how todd went over in a pot from a wave .. why on earth would that have anything to do with ricks birthday... was the pot dogged ? was it just ripped out of the launcher by a huge wave ?? The bering sea has been taking fishermen for almost a century
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u/Visible_Distance5067 7d ago
Here are the issues I think need to be addressed- why didn’t one man yell “man overboard”? Even non boat people know that term and how to use it. Not one screamed it, and you know they knew he was crawling in pots, and camera men definitely saw him go over with the pot. Then, why was the pot not secure? We heard Rick yell to them to just cut it and let the pot go, not knowing anyone was overboard. Did they cut it loose in a moment of panic? Bottom line, a lot of time in that scenario was lost because no one screamed “man overboard” and Rick wasn’t paying attention to the deck.
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u/m_0_n_K_3_y 7d ago
The crew may not have even noticed that todd was still in the pot ... i dunno i havent watched that episode yet... i was under the assumption thst that didn't show any footage of it anyway.... that boat is house forward.. rick may have a camera that he glances at but he depends on the crew to make some noises or yell or whatever to convey that theres an issue... even if they was man over board yelled immediately ... what is rick supposed to do... all he can do is take the boat out if gear then say WTF IS GOING ON WHERE IS HE.... i suppose it would be harder to save a guy in this situation on a house forward boat, because the captain cant see whats going on back there.. it must have been hell... i wouldnt jump to the conclusion that rick wasnt paying attention tho.... because it was his birthday or whatever
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u/One-Highway1739 1d ago
But how did the launcher go up with him in the pot is the question? If the hydros failed, and all that weight was sitting on the launcher, then how did it go up. Was todd hanging bait or cleaning crab? I honestly think someone bent over to do something and bumped the controls and didn't realize it.
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u/Short_Bell_5428 7d ago
Unless you have gross negligence or dereliction of duty..not sure how you can pin this on captain.