What Happened To Andy Hillstrand From Deadliest Catch?

Captain Andy Hillstrand seems to have traded his high-stakes career on the sea for life on the shore. Known largely for his and his brother Johnathan's prominent roles on Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" — a reality series that documents the perilous lives of crab fishermen — Andy Hillstrand's appearances on the show have become increasingly fleeting in recent years, leading fans to wonder about his whereabouts. According to Johnathan Hillstrand — who left the series in 2017, only to return in 2020 — his brother originally stepped away from "Deadliest Catch" in order to focus on other aspects of the Hillstrand family's enterprise.

"For the last couple seasons Captain Andy has been working the land-based side of our business," Hillstrand said in a 2016 post made by the "Deadliest Catch" Facebook account.

"It has kept Captain Andy off F/V Time Bandit, but he still made the trip to Dutch Harbor to help get all the permits and licenses together for Time Bandit before every crab season." 

Andy Hillstrand at one point relocated from the shores of Alaska to Chandler, Indiana to found a 17-acre horse ranch known as Hobby Horse Acres, although Johnathan revealed in the same post that the ranch has since been sold. While Andy Hillstrand made scant appearances in Season 19 of "Deadliest Catch," he has never since been featured on the show in the same capacity as Johnathan, who continues to captain the Time Bandit on Season 22.

Throughout his time on "Deadliest Catch," Andy Hillstrand proved no stranger to legal drama. A prior interview with Entertainment Weekly indicates that Andy and his brother had been having difficulties with Discovery Channel ever since conflict arose over their 2011 TV special "Hillstranded."

"There was a lot of misunderstanding," said Andy, explaining that in the midst of a speaking tour he and Johnathan embarked on after filming "Hillstranded," "[Discovery Channel] came back and said they needed pickup shots so our schedule was pretty much screwed ... we butted heads for a while."

Following the brothers' alleged inability to return for another round of "Hillstranded" shooting, Discovery Channel sued the pair in 2010 for $3 million in damages, prompting the Hillstrands to declare to the Hollywood Reporter that they were "unable to continue participating" in "Deadliest Catch." 

While Discovery eventually dropped the lawsuit and the Hillstrands returned to film "Deadliest Catch" Season 7, the conflict marked the first of two major legal cases against the Hillstrands. The brothers would again be sued years later, after one of the Time Bandit crew members was injured in a 2013 incident involving a firework. A jury sided in the crew member's favor in 2017.