Did Josh Harris Leave Cornelia Marie? Why is He Working in Time Bandit this Season?

The newest season of Deadliest Catch truly has one of the biggest change-ups we have ever seen in the show. The COVID pandemic made sure to not just cause half of the crabbing boats this season to be stuck in Seattle ports, now the half of the boats that will be going out will have tons of new challenges, including the shortage of hands on deck, also caused by the pandemic.

We already were informed previously that the government was not able to issue any charts for game projection, so captains will already be fishing blind. Now fans are shaking their heads as they just caught a nostalgic glimpse of Josh Harris working on the FV Time Bandit.

For those who may not know the Harris family’s history with the show, Captain Phil Harris of FV Cornelia Marie passed away in 2010. His two sons, Jake and Josh Harris, have since worked to get their hold back on their father’s ship. Jake Harris, however, dropped out of the pursuit quite quickly after falling into the dangerously bad habit of addiction to drugs and the corresponding run-ins with the law. As a result, Jake Harris, however, was successful enough to get back to being co-captain on Cornelia Marie alongside Captain Casey McManus.

He has successfully restored his father’s name and reputation since topping the charge season after season. However, fans can expect to see him back in FV Time Bandit, where he previously worked alongside Captain John Hillstrand until he got his captain’s license in 2013.

John Hillstrand is a story of his own about how he even decided to continue fishing this season at the very last second. John was calling in his retirement with all the things going on around, but Sig Hansen managed to convince him to delay his retirement this season because the fishing industry needed to meet the quota of catching five million pounds of king crabs. John agreed, and he somehow managed to do the impossible and gather crews so close to the season start.

Captain John was expecting to have his brother Andy Hillstrand by his side on the Time Bandit, however, Andy unfortunately tested positive for COVID just before the season began. So, as his last option, John wanted to have someone he knows and has worked with in the past, and thus thought of Josh. He climbs aboard the Cornelia Marie to speak to him.

“I need him to go fishing with me for king crab,” John says casually, pointing at Josh, “think about it.”

At first, Josh thinks that John is talking about the next season, so he is pretty surprised learning that he is talking about this season that they are going to embark on right now.

“I need somebody over there with me. I thought I was going to have Andy, and I just want to make sure that there’s nothing that Phil didn’t teach you. I want to teach you everything I know, just think about it,” John elaborates and adds a deal to entice Josh into joining him.

“And I could give you some quota if that sweetened the pot.”

It is clear as John walks off confidently that he thinks he’s just made a deal that the other party can’t refuse. However, that is not the way either Casey or Josh thought. They have a brief talk, but Josh says that his father owed Hillstrand a lot, so that will be the only reason why he is joining Time Bandit, just this one season.

But Josh’s intention may cause some future scenes, which we are very interested to see. Many fans were worried seeing Josh back on Time Bandit. They may be aware that Josh is not the sole owner of the boat; he is one of the four owners, with Casey being the second, and two other unnamed benefactors too. But Josh is still the biggest shareholder among the four, so they can rest easy knowing that Josh is only fulfilling his obligation by working the season for Time Bandit. He will be returning to Cornelia Marie in no time.