Boy, 15, Survives Hanging onto Capsized Boat for Days in Alaskan Sea After His Brother and Cousin Drowned and Died

“I am not sure how anybody else would survive that,” said the captain of a vessel that assisted in Derek Parker Aghnaanga’s rescue

NEED TO KNOW

• Alaskan teenager Derek Parker Aghnaanga was rescued on Sept. 7 after days at sea clinging to his capsized fishing vessel
• The 15-year-old boy survived for days on the capsized boat, while his brother and cousin drowned and died
• The U.S. Coast Guard asked a nearby fishing vessel to assist in his rescue, and crews covered Aghnaanga in blankets as they took him more than 100 miles to mainland

An Alaskan teenager was rescued after days at sea — and officials said he survived by clinging to his capsized fishing vessel.

The ordeal began on Friday, Sept. 4, when 15-year-old Derek Parker Aghnaanga, set sail with his older brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, and their cousin, to catch halibut, according to KTUU, The New York Times and the Associated Press.

The three were scheduled to return around 3 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 6, the U.S. Coast Guard told the outlets. When their skiff didn’t return to St. Lawrence Island — located in the Bering Sea about 160 miles off the coast of mainland Alaska — officials in the family’s hometown of Savoonga alerted Alaska State Troopers to their disappearance.

By 8:30 p.m. that Sunday, state troopers had notified the Coast Guard, which began a rescue operation that involved Alaska Air National Guard units, local officials in Savoonga, the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center and other organizations.

Crews were unable to search the waters due to the dense fog in the region on Sunday, and rescuers eventually set out on the morning of Monday, Sept. 7, after conditions had improved.

By 10:30 a.m. that Monday, the Coast Guard had spotted Aghnaanga. They asked the Northwest Explorer — a fishing vessel with a crew of 13 people that included National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists — to pick him up, according to KTUU.

The teen’s mother told KTUU that he survived — after his brother and cousin drowned and died — by holding on to the skiff for days. Kulowiyi, his older brother and the vessel’s captain, died after becoming stuck under the boat, while their cousin died on Sunday.

It is unknown why the vessel capsized on Saturday, officials told the Times.

“Through the teeth chattering, he had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff and then he said that in the previous night before our rescue that his cousin had slipped away off the top of the skiff,” Adam White, the captain of the Northwest Explorer, told KTUU.

Although White’s vessel was 39 miles away from Aghnaanga, he was told his ship was closest to Derek, according to the Times. It took the Northwest Explorer four hours to reach the teen.

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“It was the longest four hours of my life,” he told the Times.

They eventually found Aghnaanga, wearing a bright yellow jacket, kneeling on the hull of his capsized skiff. The Coast Guard had dropped inflatable rafts in the water nearby, but the teen — who was suffering from hypothermia — was too weak to swim to them.

The vessel’s crew opted to throw him a rope before pulling him aboard, before recovering the bodies of his brother and cousin.

“I am not sure how anybody else would survive that,” White said.

Speaking to the AP, an aunt of the two brothers, Collen Walker, shared that their mother was listening to a radio transmission of the rescue Monday, while other family members huddled around a phone.

“We all cried and jumped for joy when the captain announced on the radio, ‘We found a kid, he’s alive, he’s alive,’ ” she said. “Then we asked, ‘Where’s the rest of them?’ ”

According to Walker, the family is remembering Kulowiyi, a commercial fishing captain, as a humble and loving “provider for people in the village” who served as a father figure to Aghnaanga, following the death of their own father when they were young.

“That’s how we do it in our community. We take care of one another,” she told the AP. “We still live a traditional way of life even if the world is changing.”

Walker opted not release the name of their late cousin, but she shared that he also came from Savoonga.

After Aghnaanga made it aboard the Northwest Explorer, crew members took his temperature and covered him in blankets until they reached Nome, Alaska, on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 8 — more than 100 miles from the rescue site.

On social media, the boy’s mother described him as a “survivor,” per the Times.

“He lived on prayer,” she wrote.

Following the harrowing ordeal, Aghnaanga’s family set up a GoFundMe page to assist the teen.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s remarkable,” White told KTUU of the teen’s survival. “It’s cold. The water is 10 degrees Celsius.”

“Saturday, all the way to Tuesday, that kid was on top of that skiff,” the vessel captain added. “I mean, that’s one tough kid.”

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