A 15-year-old boy was pulled alive from Alaska’s icy Bering Sea after spending roughly two days clinging to an overturned boat.
Derek Parker Aghnaanga had set out on a fishing trip last Friday with his older brother and cousin when their boat capsized.
His two relatives did not survive, but Aghnaanga managed to stay on top of the upturned vessel until help arrived.
He was hoisted to safety Monday by a fishing boat after being spotted near St. Lawrence Island, while the bodies of his brother and cousin were also recovered.
Video from the rescue shows Aghnaanga, wearing a bright yellow jacket, kneeling on the capsized skiff as rescuers move in.
Crew members throw him a line and pull the skiff close enough to lift the exhausted teenager into a rescue basket.
Aghnaanga later told rescuers that his cousin had also held onto the overturned boat for a time, but did not make it to the rescue.
The captain of the fishing vessel that found him said the teen endured the night and water temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius while clinging to the skiff.
Derek Parker Aghnaanga sits on top of a capsized vessel as it is towed during a rescue operation off St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, U.S., September 7, 2026
A rescuer helps the teenage survivor from the capsized vessel during the operation
‘That’s one tough kid,’ Adam White, captain of The Northwest Explorer, told KTUU-TV in Anchorage.
‘Through the teeth chattering, he had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff,’ White said. ‘And then he said that, the previous night, before our rescue, his cousin had slipped away.’
US Coast Guard planes and helicopters began searching for the skiff Monday morning after family members reported the three missing the night before.
The group left the village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island on Friday and planned to return early Sunday, the Coast Guard said.
Halibut fishing is a part of the culture and important to survival in the village where there are about 800 residents and jobs are hard to come by, said Collen Walker, an aunt of the two brothers.
Residents often share their catch with family and neighbours, she said.
‘That’s how we do it in our community. We take care of one another,’ she said Friday. ‘We still live a traditional way of life even if the world is changing.’
Aghnaanga, the teen rescued, often went fishing with his 35-year-old brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, and looked to him as a father figure ever since their own father died when they were younger, Walker said.
The teenager was found sat atop the overturned vessel two days after he went missing at sea
She described Kulowiyi, a commercial fishing captain, as a humble and loving ‘provider for people in the village.’ She didn’t want to release the name of their cousin who died, saying he also came from Savoonga.
Their skiff capsized Saturday night far out in the ocean, she was told.
The Coast Guard said one of its aircrews spotted the boy Monday morning and deployed a raft and supplies before contacting The Northwest Explorer.
Aghnaanga’s mother was listening to a radio transmission of the rescue Monday while other family members huddled around a speakerphone, Walker said.
‘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?”‘
He was experiencing symptoms of hypothermia when he got onto the boat, the Coast Guard said.
The fishing boat crew warmed him with blankets and hot packs, its captain said.
