Deadliest Catch Fans See A Major Hypocrisy From The Cornelia Marie
With all the stressful factors that the captains featured on Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" need to deal with on a daily basis, such as unpredictable weather, rogue waves smashing over the deck, and 700-pound pots swinging past deckhands' heads, it's easy to forget why they're working in the middle of the Bearing Sea to begin with. On top of the countless issues that can result in serious injury or even death, these captains still have to figure out how and where to catch the crab! When it comes to picking the right spot to drop their pots, each has their own plan of attack, whether it be from their own past experiences or already-known, bountiful spots.
When all finding-crab tactics fail, sometimes these captains have no choice but to turn to each other for help. Covering twice as much ground simply equals doubling the chances of finding a biomass of crab. Of course, this requires a certain level of trust. One of the captains helping the other may hit the jackpot and decide to keep that information to themselves.
This is exactly what appeared to happen to the F/V Cornelia Marie when they decided to team up with Keith Colburn of the F/V Wizard. And to many fans, Keith's betrayal of Cornelia Marie co-captains Josh Harris and Casey MacManus was well-deserved.
The Cornelia Marie's calling out the wizard was pure hypocrisy
This act of "Deadliest Catch" captain betrayal occurred in Season 18, Episode 7 ("Follow the Rainbow"). Both Keith Colburn of The Wizard and co-captains Josh Harris and Casey MacManus of The Cornelia Marie were experiencing awful crab numbers. As a last-ditch effort, the two vessels decided to team up and prospect two different areas of the Bering Sea. At first, both crews continued to have no luck — that is, until Colburn finally landed on those evasive crustaceans.
Colburn decided to withhold the information about his discovery after he overheard Harris and MacManus revealing crab-finding status to Jonathan Hillstrand of The Time Bandit, a no-no when it comes to teaming up. For Colburn, if he told the F/V Cornelia Marie that he had landed on the crab, it would then be more than just the one other vessel knowing about it since Harris and MacManus were talking to another captain, so he decided not to tell them. After Harris figured out Colburn was lying, they expressed their anger at the deception and vowed never to work with Colburn again. But some fans at home agree that the Cornelia Marie was getting a dose of karma.
According to different fans' online reactions, this type of sketchy-trickery is something The Cornelia Marie had dished out themselves in past seasons. On Reddit, u/Firefan23 started the conversation with, "I just laughed when the Cornelia Marie complained what The Wizard did and lied to them ... like you did it to the Time Bandit last year ... " U/Imacad concurred by stating, "Josh stabbing the Hillstrands when they gave him a job for years really pisses me off. The dude isn't even second rate, he's just a bloody loser."