What Does the Winner of Wicked Tuna Get as a Prize?

Wicked Tuna on National Geographic was a game-changer for me. I first watched season 4 in 2015 and immediately binge-watched all previous Wicked Tuna seasons to get caught up.

The winners’ prize on Wicked Tuna was one of the things that drew me in. As I rewatched every episode, I created a table of the winners and how much money they received.

Get Wicked Tuna Merchandise: Did you know you can buy a wide range of Wicked Tuna gear on Amazon? You can catch up on previous episodes, buy t-shirts, and much more. 

How much does the winner of Wicked Tuna get paid?

Here is a historical table of all previous winners and runners-up, giving you a quick and easy-to-understand view if how much money Wicked Tuna winners receive.

So, there is no real prize as such, with the winner getting first place due to the amount of tuna they manage to land during the season.

Does the winner of Wicked Tuna get a prize? 

Whilst there is no medal, trophy, or prize as such, the winners of Wicked Tuna will have bragging rights for a lifetime, plus the prize money which is the earnings from their season’s catches.

For the captains and crew, catching the most tuna more than makes up for their being no actual medal, trophy, prize, or payment for winning the first place position.

From what I can gather having read interviews with the winning captains who have got the first-place positions through the seasons, it’s not just about the prize or how much they get paid.

It’s about much more than that as you can see from these interview excerpts I found online. 

What does the winner of Wicked Tuna get as a prize for first place?

To help with the research into what prizes the Wicked Tuna winners get, I found some interviews with some of the winning captains.

It was really interesting to see what they said about the competition and rivalry.

Dave Marciano season 4 winner with Hard Merchandise

Here’s what Dave Marciano, captain of Hard Merchandise boat which won the 2015 season 4 series, had to say:

“These fish are worth quite a bit of money. So even in the real world, we’re out there trying to catch fish worth money. At the height of that season, things happen; the elbows go out and everybody get a little pushy because it’s just human nature. You want to be better than the next guy, you want to make more money than the next guy, you want to catch more fish than the next guy.”

The quotes above are taken from an excellent interview on the Wide Open Spaces website.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t asked any questions about what the winner of Wicked Tuna gets a prize for first place. It might be that he didn’t want to divulge financial information.

Dave Carraro seasons 1,3,4, and 6 winner with FV-Tuna.com

I then found another interview with Dave Carraro. He’s the winner of seasons 1,3,4, and 6 in the FV-Tuna.com boat.

He was asked what he thought about winning and the prizes on offer for catching the most on the Nat Geo Wicked Tuna TV show. Here’s what he said:

“I like being the top dog. Top dog, that means you’re making the most money. Sure, I don’t mind it. However, everybody’s always coming at you. Everybody’s always coming after the top guy, but, you know, anyway it’s good, too, because it keeps you on your toes. And it makes you fish that much harder and catch that many more fish and make that much more money.” 

Tyler McLaughlin seasons 2 and 7 winner in Pin Wheel 

Next up to find out his views on the Wicked Tuna competition, including the prizes and payment on offer it Captain McLaughlin. He’s one of the youngest captains in the show, but age isn’t a factor, as he’s won two seasons already, with plenty more years to come.

He was interviewed in the Boston Globe and had this to say the competition involved, in particular how hard tuna is to catch. 

“I was a skinny kid fishing on a tuna boat when I was younger, but I could reel in tuna faster than anyone. I like the challenge. Tuna are the hardest fish to catch. There’s not a smarter, badder, or harder-fighting fish.”

Their pay makes up for the lack of prize money being paid

Whilst the winning prize for coming first place in Wicked Tuna might not be that impressive, as they doesn’t really seem to be one, apart from counting up their catches, don’t feel to sorry for the cast.

The captains and crew can make a lot of money through their wages for TV appearances, personal appearances, sponsorships and endorsements.

If you want to find out more about their pay structure and how much they can make in a season, read my investigation into how much the guys on Wicked Tuna get paid. It makes for really interesting reading, especially when you see how much the winning captains get paid for coming first place.

However, despite those high salaries, a lot of that money needs to go on paying for their boats. Needless to say, whoever wins next season of Wicked Tuna will probably be able to upgrade their vessel and customize it further. Here’s how much a tuna boat costs to buy in case you want to get into this yourself.

The last word…

So there you have it; the winner of Wicked Tuna gets bragging rights, with the first prize being pride in the fact they caught the most valuable amount of tuna through the season.

If you love your TV reality shows about fishing, you might also be interested in these investigations I did into The Deadliest Catch.

• How much a Deadliest Catch crab boat costs
• How they count crab on the Deadliest Catch
• How much deckhands earn on the Deadliet Catch