Todd Meadows

Todd Meadows was an American commercial fisherman from Montesano, Washington, who joined the cast of the Discovery Channel reality series "Deadliest Catch" in 2025 as a deckhand aboard the crab boat Aleutian Lady, captained by Rick Shelford. He was in his first season on the show, having joined the crew in May 2025, and had previously spent several years working on a charter fishing boat in northern Washington before moving into the Bering Sea crab fishery.

Meadows grew up around fishing boats. His father, Lucas Meadows, said his son had been fishing with him since he was about three years old and that it had been a lifelong passion. Meadows was the father of three young sons, and those who knew him described him as a devoted, hardworking father whose family was, as a fundraiser set up after his death put it, his "entire world." Colleagues on the Aleutian Lady remembered him as a cheerful, quick presence on deck who had, in a short time, become part of the boat's tight-knit crew.

On the evening of February 25, 2026, Meadows fell overboard from the Aleutian Lady while the vessel was crab fishing roughly 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in the Bering Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard's Arctic District command center in Juneau was notified shortly after 5 p.m. local time that a crew member had gone into the water. The Aleutian Lady's crew recovered Meadows from the near freezing sea about ten minutes later. He was unresponsive, and the crew administered first aid and attempted to resuscitate him, but those efforts were unsuccessful. His body was transported to Dutch Harbor. He was 25 years old.

Aleutian Lady captain Rick Shelford announced Meadows' death publicly in a Facebook post on March 2, 2026, calling it "the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea" and describing Meadows as a brother whose hard work and cheerfulness had earned the crew's respect almost immediately. Discovery Channel, which produces "Deadliest Catch," also issued a statement calling the loss devastating and extending condolences to his family, crewmates and the fishing community. Meadows' death certificate, issued in early March and obtained by media outlets in April, listed the cause of death as drowning with probable hypothermia and submersion of the body in cold water, and ruled the death an accident following an autopsy.

His death set off tributes from his family, including his mother Angela and sister Mackenzie, and from fans of the show, along with a GoFundMe campaign that raised tens of thousands of dollars to support his three sons and cover funeral costs. The Coast Guard opened an investigation into the circumstances of his fall, a standard step following any marine casualty, and by April his family had indicated it intended to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit, though it remained unclear who would be named as a defendant. "Deadliest Catch" aired a tribute to Meadows at the start of its Season 22 premiere on May 8, 2026, using footage filmed before his death in which he spoke about wanting his children to chase their own dreams.