If you’re a fan of Deadliest Catch, Discovery Channel’s Harpoon Hunters is a must-watch. The new series follows fishermen during the summer months on Cape Cod where they’re looking for Atlanta bluefin tuna. The clock is ticking with only so much time and quota allowed each season. Many of these waters have invested so much with hopes of securing big fish, which could be worth upwards of $10,000 or more.
It’s make or break for many of these fishermen, and Captain Nicholas “Niko” Chaprales is among those feeling the pressure. Aboard the Ezyduzit, the 37-year-old has followed in his dad Bill’s footsteps. After his father passed away in 2022, Chaprales, who also competes in Strong Man competitions and is a championship powerlifter, continued to carry on the family legacy. He’ll have a lot to live up to on the boat, which has a track record of landing 50 bluefin per season.
Here Chaprales previews what’s to come this season.
How did you come to be part of the show?
Nicholas “Niko” Chaprales: It’s funny because I did three shows for Discovery back in the early 2010s for “Shark Week,” so I was already in their rolodex of commercial fishermen. My deckhand Thomas found a casting call on Facebook for Harpoon Hunters. He is like, “This is us right.” I thought we would reach out and see. Before I could even reach out, I had one of the talent people from the network give me a shout. They said they were sending a talent scout to Sandwich, Massachusetts in January. I decided to meet up with him, and it all sort of snowballed from there. It has worked out pretty well I think.
Your dad was a big part of this industry. What has it been like to keep the family business afloat and thriving?
It has definitely been an adjustment and pretty tough. On the Ezyduzit my father was the captain my entire life. I started fishing with him when I was nine harpooning bluefin tuna. That’s where I got my education in the industry. Not only does my father have a great reputation as a fishermen, but he also has a reputation as far as all of the conservation efforts for the fishery. He was a big part of the aerial survey to disprove the theory that bluefin should be put on the endangered species list. He has done multiple tagging projects with the Division of Fisheries service and New England Aquarium. To have to step into that role and live up a legend like that was a lot of responsibility and pressure. I feel like I definitely gave it everything I have this season. I feel like I did a pretty good job stepping into that role of captain and producing for the boat and the crew.
Discovery Channel
How much of your background in powerlifting and strongman plays in harpooning?
Just the aspect of being a vicious competitor carries over a lot more than the physical aspects. While I have a pretty distinct edge in strength and speed and whatnot, it’s not that big of an advantage. Bluefin harpooning, the technical skills are far more important than the physical advantages. The ability to throw a harpoon and the accuracy it takes definitely keeps others in the game. Then where there is someone like me who is a professional athlete, that gives me a slight advantage. It’s definitely something I would rather have than not. I don’t think it gives me that big of an advantage over the other guys.
Unless it’s from an intimidation factor because they look at you and think, “Oh man, I don’t want to get this fish. I don’t want to get this guy on my bad side.”
[Laughs] That is true.
Discovery Channel
What has it been like having the cameras around?
The first couple of weeks we were lucky enough where the producers of this show also produced Wicked Tuna. A lot of our shooters had worked on Deadliest Catch too, so we had some really experienced guys. These guys are so professional. After they saw how we go about doing things and where they should be and shouldn’t be, it really was just business as usual. I think the interesting thing about this particular show is when you take a show like Wicked Tuna, a lot of the action happens in the cockpit where the rod is.
In terms of being able to capture everything, Wicked Tuna had one cameraman on the boat and five or six fixed GoPros. We had about 11 or 12 fixed GoPros, cameraman and a drone guy. Every hour each vessel was on the water, we had 13 or so hours of footage to go through. I think at the end they had almost 8,000 hours of footage to make nine 42-minute episodes. These editors have an incredible job picking out the parts they want to have to tell this story. I think they have so much incredible footage. Everything in the show is just the most unbelievable footage on the ocean you’ll ever see.
What’s the biggest fish have you caught?
Me personally, the biggest fish we caught was 116 inches and almost 700 pounds. The big thing with the harpoon fishing is we are using electric harpoons where once we dart the fish, a charge is sent to kill the fish instantly. It’s the most humane way of doing things. When you fight a fish on a rod, that fish is struggling that whole time you’re fighting it. That raises the internal temperature of the fish. The lactic acid builds up in the muscle tissue, which can compromise the quality of the meat. So when you’re talking about premium grade sushi, you want to use an electrical harpoon because that fish would be dispatched right away.
When you loin that fish up the quality of the meat almost looks like watermelon. It’s that nice beautiful color in the meat. That’s what you want to see when you make a premium grade sushi roll. These fish in the past, they’ve gone for as much as $40 or $50 a pound. It really depends on how you take care of the fish and quality of the fish. That’s what gets you the high price. You also hear the first bluefin landed every year is almost like a clout thing in Japan for these guys to buy the first fish. So this year the first fish harvested in 2025 brought like $1.3 million. That is incredibly rare. We’ve never got prices like that. The first fish of the year is like tradition in Japan. It’s like a luck thing. It’s like who has the biggest wallet to buy that first bluefin of the year. They are incredibly valuable.
What did you walk away with after filming?
I’m just so grateful for it because I feel like my father gave his life to this industry. This was his true passion. I wish he was still around to be a part of it, but to be able to tell that story and the story of the Ezyduzit and story of that fishery, everything my father, myself and our boat gave back to the industry. Being able to tell that story to the world, it’s a privilege I’ll always be grateful for. I’m so thankful we had the opportunity to do this. We want everyone to tune in so we have the opportunity to do this for years to come.
Harpoon Hunters premiere, January 24, 9/8c, Discovery Channel
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
