Captain Keith Colburn is one of the more recognizable personalities on the hit reality TV show Deadliest Catch. He made his first appearance during the third season and has popped up sporadically since then, although lately his appearances have slowed a bit, prompting viewers to question his whereabouts.
Keith fans can take a collective deep breath as the lovable captain has no plans of retiring from the show just yet. Considering he’s been through a lot on Deadliest Catch over the years, this is great news.
In an interview from a few years ago, Colburn said he doesn’t “plan on retiring” but understands that one day climate change may force him to stop doing what he loves.
“Anybody that doesn’t think climate change exists. Guess what? It exists. Every year it gets worse and worse and worse,” he said. Colburn is no spring chicken (he’s in his ’60s) and he understands he’s going to have to hang it up at some point but also “then you leave town. And it’s beautiful, it’s back home, and look at the stars, you set your gear, awesome fishing. You can’t take that away from me right now.”
What is Captain Keith Colburn’s background?
Captain Keith Colburn was 22 when on a whim he jumped on a plane from Lake Tahoe to Kodiak, Alaska, with no experience, a best friend named Kurt and a dream. With $50 between the two of them, Colburn took a job as a greenhorn on a 135-foot crabber named Alaska Trader.
He immediately fell in love with the job and found himself smack dab in a career from something he thought would be a summer fling. He worked his way up and by 1992 he “received his 1600 ton inspected Masters (Captain) license and has remained at the helm as the skipper.”
Colburn made a name for himself by following the advice of old pro John Jorgensen, who told him to “tune out the rest of the fleet.”
“If you want to catch crab, turn this thing off…if you want to follow people turn it on,” Jorgensen said. Colburn turned off his radio, followed his instincts, and headed further north than any other boats, so far he was navigating through chunks of floating ice.
The gamble paid off and Colburn and his crew caught 540,000 lbs of snow crab during a year when the median catch in 2002 was 130,000 lbs. And that’s how you make a name for yourself as a skipper.