Wednesday, February 10th Discovery Channel lost one of its stars when Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie died after suffering a stroke.  

Captain Phil was out at sea fishing when he was struck with the fatal stroke, but managed to get medivac’d to the nearest hospital.  Phil actually survived the ordeal for a few days and looked as if he would be OK.  “Dad started to sit up and responded to us; he was able to grab our hands and fingers.” says his son.  “We really knew how tough he was, and thought he was going to be OK.”

Phil died from complications from the stroke on Wednesday. 

In the past season, Captain Harris was stricken with a blood clot that passed up his legs, through his heart and ended up in his lungs where it was successfully removed.  The doctors were amazed he survived at all; and warned him that going out to see, and having something like this happen again could prove to be fatal.  Phil was suffering from a genetic problem that caused these clots, his mother died young from the very same thing.

Phil was a fisherman through and through, he loved the harsh conditions of the Artic Sea, and loved fishing with his boys.  Its the reason he came back to work; something he’s been doing since he was 10.  At least he went doing something he loved with the boys he treasured.

The future of the Cornelia Marie is in the air, his eldest son was the captain of the ship on his first blood clot incident and may take over for his father.  They may decide to retire the ship all together; but that is still to be seen.

Captain Phil’s legacy will live on in the treterous waters of the Artic Ocean and forever play on the reruns of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch.”