Well, I always wanted to go fishing.
I’ve always just loved the ocean.
There’s something about it that catches your eye.

Mandy Hansen’s life has been defined by secrets that exploded at the worst possible times.
While she was fighting to prove herself on the deck of the Northwestern, her family was falling apart behind the scenes.

An uncle pleading guilty to a crime that got him erased from the show forever.
An adoptive father facing allegations so serious they nearly ended his career.
A biological father who walked away before she could remember his face.

And a family tree with branches that didn’t connect the way everyone thought they did.
The adoption nobody talked about.

About time.
Cold and miserable.
Aren’t you going to hug Uncle Norman?
Well, you know, if you actually looked at me.

For years, fans had no idea Mandy wasn’t Sig Hansen’s biological daughter.
They watched her grind through 36-hour shifts in sub-zero weather, hauling 800-pound crab pots, thinking she was blood.

But the truth was buried deeper than any crab trap.

Mandy Hansen was born in 1996 in Seattle, Washington, to June Hansen.
When Sig married June around 2001 or 2002, Mandy was around five or six years old.

Sig adopted both Mandy and her older sister, Nenah, giving them his last name.
From that moment forward, they were Hansens.

But Sig had another daughter.
One nobody talked about.

Her name was Melissa Extramm.
Born in 1988 to Sig’s first wife, Lisa Extramm.

Sig and Lisa married in 1987 but separated before Melissa was even born.
Their divorce was finalized in 1992.

The courts awarded Sig visitation rights.
But he chose to relinquish them.

According to Sig, it was probably the hardest thing he’d done in his life.

You can’t retake this incident and do it over again.

He said it through tears.
He blamed the toxic relationship with Lisa for forcing that choice.

While Mandy was quietly adopted into the family, Melissa’s name was barely mentioned.
For years, nobody questioned it.

Deadliest Catch fans just saw Sig’s daughter, meant to carry on the fishing legacy.

But in 2016, Melissa came back.

There she is.
Wish she had a big sign.

And what she accused Sig of doing would tear through the Hansen family like a rogue wave.

The allegations were so serious that prosecutors reviewed them three separate times.
Medical exams.
Therapy sessions.
Child welfare reports.

And Mandy was caught in the middle of all of it, trying to captain a boat while the media tore her family apart.

And that wasn’t even the worst scandal.

Her uncle’s crime would get him scrubbed from Deadliest Catch forever.

Did you see the land?
But you picked it up though.

A guilty plea.
A victim who was just sixteen years old.

And Mandy had to keep showing up to work alongside him until the truth finally came out.

The lawsuit that shook everything.

March 2017.
Melissa Extramm, now twenty-eight years old, filed a lawsuit accusing Sig of abusing her when she was just two years old back in 1990.

The accusation came from a time when Sig was going through a bitter divorce with Lisa.

Police in Edmonds, Washington, actually arrested Sig in 1990.
Prosecutors reviewed the case three times between 1990 and 1991 but didn’t file charges, saying they didn’t have enough evidence.

But that didn’t mean they didn’t believe it.

One prosecutor wrote that available information suggested Sig had acted inappropriately toward Melissa.

The files included medical exams.
Child welfare reports.
Relatives who said Melissa talked about being touched.

A doctor specializing in assault treatment determined Melissa exhibited signs of trauma.
A therapist noted she imitated the alleged abuse using dolls and drawings.

In March 1992, a judge ruled Sig did not assault his daughter.

But in 2018, a Washington Court of Appeals panel ruled Melissa’s civil lawsuit could proceed to trial.

Snohomish County prosecutors re-examined the allegations again in 2018.
In the end, they maintained their original decision not to charge Sig.

Sig denied everything.
He claimed the lawsuit was an attempt to extort money by threatening to spread false claims.

He said Melissa had contacted him in 2010 asking for help paying for law school.
But the reconciliation collapsed when money demands followed.

The outcome of the civil case was never publicly disclosed.

For Mandy, this was impossible.
She couldn’t defend him without looking biased.
Couldn’t condemn him without destroying her family.

So she stayed silent.
And let the courts handle it.

For years, fans had no idea Mandy wasn’t Sig Hansen’s biological daughter.
They watched her grind through 36-hour shifts in sub-zero weather, hauling 800-pound crab pots, believing she was blood.

But the truth was buried deeper than any crab trap.

Mandy Hansen was born in 1996 in Seattle, Washington, to June Hansen.
When Sig married June around 2001 or 2002, Mandy was about five or six years old.

Sig adopted both Mandy and her older sister, Nenah, giving them his last name.
From that moment forward, they were Hansens.

But Sig had another daughter — one nobody talked about.

Her name was Melissa Extramm, born in 1988 to Sig’s first wife, Lisa Extramm.

Sig and Lisa married in 1987 but separated before Melissa was even born.
Their divorce was finalized in 1992.

The courts awarded Sig visitation rights, but he chose to relinquish them.

According to Sig, it was probably the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.

You can’t retake an incident like that and do it over again.

He said it through tears.

He blamed the toxic relationship with Lisa for forcing that choice.

While Mandy was quietly adopted into the family, Melissa’s name was barely mentioned.

For years, nobody questioned it.

Deadliest Catch fans just saw Sig’s daughter, the one expected to carry on the fishing legacy.

But in 2016, Melissa came back.

There she is.
Wish she had a big sign.

And what she accused Sig of doing would tear through the Hansen family like a rogue wave.

The allegations were so serious that prosecutors reviewed them three separate times.

Medical exams were conducted.
Therapy sessions were documented.
Child welfare reports were filed.

Mandy was caught in the middle of all of it, trying to establish herself as a captain while the media tore her family apart.

And that wasn’t even the worst scandal.

Her uncle’s crime would get him scrubbed from Deadliest Catch forever.

Did you see the land?
But you picked it up, though.

A guilty plea changed everything.

The victim was just sixteen years old.

Mandy kept showing up to work alongside him until the truth finally came out.

Then came the lawsuit that shook everything.

In March 2017, Melissa Extramm, now twenty-eight years old, filed a lawsuit accusing Sig of abusing her when she was just two years old in 1990.

The accusation stemmed from a period when Sig was going through a bitter divorce with Lisa.

Police in Edmonds, Washington, had arrested Sig back in 1990.

Prosecutors reviewed the case three separate times between 1990 and 1991 but declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence.

That decision did not mean they dismissed the allegations entirely.

One prosecutor later wrote that available information suggested Sig had acted inappropriately toward Melissa.

The files included medical examinations, child welfare reports, and statements from relatives.

Some relatives said Melissa talked about being touched.

A doctor specializing in assault treatment concluded Melissa showed signs of trauma.

A therapist reported that Melissa reenacted the alleged abuse using dolls and drawings.

In March 1992, a judge ruled in the divorce proceedings that Sig did not assault his daughter.

But in 2018, a three-member Washington Court of Appeals panel ruled that Melissa’s civil lawsuit could proceed to trial.

The court determined Melissa had not been a named party in the original custody case.

Snohomish County prosecutors re-examined the allegations again in 2018.

Deputy prosecutor Matthew Baldock reviewed the original case file to determine whether criminal charges were viable.

In the end, they maintained their original decision not to charge Sig.

Sig denied all allegations.

He claimed the lawsuit was an attempt to extort money by threatening to spread false accusations.

Sig said Melissa contacted him in 2010 asking for financial help to pay for law school.

According to Sig, the relationship deteriorated after demands for money followed.

He claimed Melissa and her mother threatened to go to the media unless he paid three hundred thousand dollars.

The final outcome of the civil lawsuit has never been publicly disclosed.

For Mandy, the situation was unbearable.

These allegations dominated headlines while she was trying to prove she belonged in the wheelhouse.

She couldn’t defend her father without appearing biased.

She couldn’t condemn him without tearing her family apart.

So she stayed silent.

And let the courts handle it.

Growing up in a fishing dynasty shaped everything that came next.

Growing up in a fishing dynasty meant Mandy’s life was shaped by the sea long before she understood what danger really was.

She was raised in Seattle’s Norwegian fishing neighborhood, where the Hansen family spoke Norwegian at home before English.

Mandy became fluent before she even started kindergarten.

Her adopted grandfather, S.A. Hansen, built the Northwestern in 1977 after his first boat sank.

S.A. pioneered opilio crab fishing in Alaska, turning what had been seasonal work into nearly year-round fishing.

By the age of ten, Mandy was already handling crab pots on deck.

Oh, it’s good luck.
Can’t tell you.
You get a pick.

At fourteen, she spent entire summers aboard the Northwestern learning how to tender.

Smaller salmon boats used the Northwestern as a floating fish taxi, transferring catch offshore.

While other teenagers were posting selfies and complaining about homework, Mandy was in Alaska, bloodied hands and freezing fingers included.

She first appeared on Deadliest Catch in 2009 at just thirteen years old during an After the Catch segment.

It was only a guest appearance, but viewers could tell something clicked.

She watched Sig command the boat and knew that wheelhouse would be hers someday.

Obviously, there’s a lot of cross,
so she’s happy now.

After graduating high school in 2014, Mandy didn’t immediately join the Northwestern.

She enrolled at Washington State University and later transferred to the California Maritime Academy in San Diego.

She graduated with licenses to operate ocean liners and freighters, making her more qualified on paper than Sig himself.

During high school, she had already completed maritime programs through Washington State University.

She studied navigation, vessel operations, and emergency response.

Sig didn’t want her to learn by improvisation alone.

He wanted her trained.

But when Mandy told Sig she wanted to fish crab season, he shut it down immediately.

He told Fox News he didn’t want his daughter on the boat because he’d lost so many friends people couldn’t comprehend it.

To him, it was too dangerous.

I just don’t understand why you’d want to go fishing when you’ve got brains and can do anything you want.

June backed him up.

Both parents said no.

In an interview with the Forner Report, Mandy explained what happened next.

She said she went out and got another job on a different boat.

That was where the line got drawn.

She told her parents she was leaving for six months.

Sig asked what she meant by leaving.

She told him she had another job and needed to make money somehow.

Two days before Sig flew to Alaska, he walked into her room and told her he had bought her a ticket.

They were leaving the next day.

Mandy later joked that Sig says she blackmailed him.

As long as she got her foot on board, she didn’t care what he called it.

In 2014, Mandy officially joined Deadliest Catch as a full-time deckhand at just eighteen years old.

Every single crew member was skeptical.

For the first time, a woman had joined Sig’s crew.

And she was his daughter.

Everyone assumed she would get special treatment.

Everyone thought she would be soft.

Everyone waited for her to fail.

One crew member later said it was difficult to watch such a young girl trying to keep up with men who had been doing this for years.

During one of her first sorting runs, the weather turned violent.

Waves slammed into the Northwestern.

A nearby boat nearly capsized.

Emergency radio calls poured in from surrounding vessels.

The cameras captured Mandy struggling on deck as forty-foot waves crashed around her.

It was her trial by fire.

Sig gave her the same advice his father once gave him.

Keep your mouth shut and do what they tell you.

The disrespect was real.

But Mandy showed up every day.