Fans of the long running Discovery Channel show The Deadliest Catch are mourning the loss of Mahlon Reyes, who sadly passed away at the age of 38. He was a deckhand on one of the show’s crab fishing boats, and died in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana according to TMZ. The outlet reported that the reality star suffered a heart attack on July 25, and his family made the difficult decision to take him off life support on July 26. Here are 5 things to know about the late fisherman.
1. He reportedly did not have any existing medical conditions. Mahlon’s wife spoke to TMZ about her husband’s untimely passing. She said he survived the heart attack and was transported to hospital, however he never regained consciousness. When his family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off life support “he was surrounded by loved ones.” Nevertheless, he did not have any existing health conditions that his family knew of, so they were “completely shocked by the massive heart attack.”
2. Mahlon’s co-stars will scatter some of his ashes. The deckhand’s Deadliest Catch co-stars will spread some of his ashes in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska where the show films.
3. He worked on multiple Deadliest Catch boats. Mahlon spent time on both the Seabrooke and Cape Caution. His wife told TMZ that he was working hard to recover from a recently torn Achilles, when he sadly passed away. The fisherman suffered the injury while crabbing on a boat, and was doing everything he could to get back to Alaska for another crab season, she told the outlet.
4. Mahlon appeared on the show for eight years. The Montana native spent the better part of a decade starring on the reality show. He first appeared in episodes in 2012, according to his IMDb page, and went on to appear in fourteen episodes over multiple seasons.
5. He is survived by four children. Along with his wife, Mahlon also had four children. Although she reported that he had a heart attack, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office said his official cause of death had not been determined and was pending autopsy and toxicology results.
