A 15-year-old boy from the remote Alaskan village of Savoonga is being called “one remarkably tough kid” after surviving nearly three days clinging to an overturned fishing skiff in the icy waters of the Bering Sea, while his older brother and cousin perished.
The teen, identified by family as Parker, was rescued Monday afternoon about four miles east of St. Lawrence Island. The crew of the fishing vessel Northwest Explorer plucked him from the hull of the 18-foot boat after a U.S. Coast Guard plane spotted him waving.
His older brother Sidney, who was operating the skiff, became trapped underneath when it flipped Friday evening. A cousin survived the first night alongside Parker before slipping off the boat and drowning.“He held on for days without food or water,” the boy’s mother told local reporters. Family members said Parker knelt and prayed through the night as waves crashed over the overturned hull.
Captain Adam White of the Northwest Explorer described the emotional scene after the rescue. “When you look into a family member’s eyes … there’s gratitude, but sorrow at the same time,” White said. “I know I became overwhelmed with it, so I had to go hide in my room for a minute.”
White called the teenager “one remarkably tough kid.” The boy showed signs of hypothermia but was otherwise physically unharmed.
The three relatives had left Savoonga on Friday to fish for halibut, a common subsistence activity in the isolated Siberian Yupik community. They were expected back early Sunday. When they failed to return, Alaska State Troopers notified the Coast Guard Sunday evening. Poor weather delayed the air search until Monday morning.
A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules crew located the overturned skiff around 10:30 a.m. Monday, dropped a life raft and survival gear, and guided the nearby Northwest Explorer to the scene. Crew members used a crane and rescue cradle to lift the shivering teen aboard.
Video of the rescue, which has circulated widely, shows Parker in a yellow jacket kneeling on the gray hull as waves slap against the boat and rescuers work to bring him to safety.In Savoonga and neighboring villages, residents fired shots into the ocean Monday evening in a traditional honor for the two men who died. “I’m so mad at the ocean,” one woman said through tears.
The incident highlights the unforgiving conditions faced by families who rely on the Bering Sea for food and livelihood. Water temperatures were around 50 degrees, cold enough to kill in hours without protection.
Parker is now home recovering with his family. The Coast Guard recovered the bodies of his brother and cousin and transported all three to Nome.
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