‘Deadliest Catch’ Cast Member Visits Smithtown School

SMITHTOWN, NY — Nick “Sunshine” Tokman, a four-year cast member of Discovery Channel’s Emmy-winning show "Deadliest Catch," visited fifth-graders at Acompsett Elementary School on March 9 to offer some inspiration, according to a news release.

Tokman initially asked the students what jobs they wanted when they grow up. One fifth-grader replied that he one day wanted to be the third baseman for the New York Yankees, another said an Olympian and a third a hairdresser.

Tokman then explained that other people’s voices sometimes pull people in other directions. Listen to your inner voice and don’t let others determine who you will be was Tokman's message.

"We don’t do what we want to do because other people’s voices start getting louder than ours," Tokman said.

He also spoke about the importance of persistence.

After traveling from his native Springfield, Massachusetts to Alaska without a job — or a concrete plan — Tokman put his resume along with rocks in sandwich bags and threw them into every boat, trying to attract the interest of any captain who might hire him for their fishing boat. That persistence paid dividends and he was hired.

He ultimately landed on “Deadliest Catch,” a reality television series that premiered in 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing seasons.

“Failure won’t break you,” he told the students. “… You all have a gift.”