'Deadliest Catch': Sig Hansen pushes himself to the brink in first storm of the season

(Discovery)

Captain Sig Hansen risked his shaky health to score a mother lode of crab in Tuesday night's episode of "Deadliest Catch."

The star of the Discovery Channel reality show, who suffered a heart attack in February 2016, insisted on going right back to sea last fall and cameras showed Sig pushing himself as hard as ever.

As fans know, this season deals with climate change as the crab appear to have traveled out to deeper, colder water.

Last week's show revealed how Sig, leading the boat the Northwestern, struck it rich by rushing out to colder waters.

But on Tuesday's show, Sig realized the first storm of the season could pack a wallop. Despite the scary weather, Sig and his crew didn't stop as they hit a rich crab haul and kept working continually on the Northwestern for 30 hours.

It had been only been eight months since Sig's heart attack, and the veteran fisherman knew he was playing with fire.

"The doctor first advised [me] not to go," Sig admitted on camera, smoking a cigarette. "I'm not here to push it but if it's something that's fun that you like to do, I don't see that as a negative. We're on great fishing and I'm not stopping."

As huge amounts of crab kept being pulled up by Sig's crew, the storm swamped the boat and the captain started coughing.

Getting tired without sleep, Sig steered his ship so that it severed a line, losing a one thousand dollar pot and all the lucrative crab inside it.

Sig sighed that that hadn't happened to him in years.

Worried brother Edgar Hansen wanted him to give up the wheel and rest. He said on the ship, "Stubborn is all he knows."

A show producer asked Sig if he was okay and insisted he call Edgar "Cause you're talking gibberish right now."

As the ship got tossed around in the storm, Sig couldn't stop yawning after 40 hours at the helm.

"He's staying awake but losing his mind," intoned the narrator.

Sig called his wife June who told him he sounded tired and wanted to know the last time he had slept.

"I honestly don't know. It's been a long time," said Sig.

He told her how much fun he was having, but June said, "Oh, my God, why are you pushing yourself so hard? You said you were going to take it easy."

She begged him to let Edgar take over.

The captain admitted to the cameras, "I know I made a promise to stop…this is something I have to do for me…you can't just take it away."

Later, Sig said he dodged a bullet with his heart attack but still felt meant to do the risky job for a few more years.

However, at the end of the episode, Sig finally slept in his bed and let Edgar take command.