Died Saturday at annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.
KDLG: Tony Lara, a former captain of the Bering Sea crabber Cornelia Marie, has died. Friends say he passed away in his sleep Saturday in Sturgis, South Dakota, at the annual motorcycle rally named for the town.
Lara was 56.
The Alaska Dispatch reports Lara began his tenure as a deckhand on the Cornelia Marie in the 1990s and became captain in 2011 after Phil Harris died unexpectedly.
The Cornelia Marie was made famous as a featured crabber on Discovery Channel’s hit reality TV show Deadliest Catch. The vessel is also frequently seen in Bristol Bay when it operates as a tender for the summer salmon season.