‘Deadliest Catch’ ‘s Sig Hansen Spending ‘Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars’ on Repairs amid Coronavirus

As the confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to rise in the United States, Deadliest Catch‘s Sig Hansen is unsure when he’ll be able to return to fishing amid the ongoing pandemic.

The captain of the Northwestern, 53, opened up about the coronavirus’ impact the fishing industry to PEOPLE Now on Tuesday, saying, “We’re going to feel the sting later.”

“We’re fortunate enough that we ‘may’ be able to go out there and stay busy and make money. We just don’t that for sure,” he said. “So right now, I’ve got the boat here in Seattle. We’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the boat for repairs, maintenance and all that.”

For now, Hansen said he remains hopeful that he’ll be able to fish in the summer.

“I just have to be a positive thinker and assume that we’re going to go fishing,” he shared. “For me, in my mind, it’s business as usual, but I don’t know that for sure. To stay ahead of the game, that’s what we’re doing. That’s our plan so we’ll be busy all this summer.”

Hansen added that prices on seafood may be impacted by the coronavirus as well.

“As far as next year’s crab prices, you know that could be a glitch. We’ve never seen prices as high as we did this last year and I think with this global virus, we may be affected here. We won’t feel that ripple effect probably until next October or November.”

The boat captain also said that several major storms last year affected filming for the 16th season of Deadliest Catch.

“We did go through … Typhoon Hagibis, I think, and that was pretty traumatic,” he shared. “A lot of the guys had to stay in-port. A lot of the guys that went out, they weren’t able to fish. I mean, it was just exhausting.”

The 16th season of Deadliest Catch premieres on Tuesday at 8 pm ET on Discovery.