ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – In Savoonga, Gambell, Nome, Shishmaref, Teller, Wales and Nunam Iqua, they fired guns into the ocean at 8:03 p.m. to honor two people who died after their skiff flipped near St. Lawrence Island.
“I’m so mad at the ocean,” a woman says through tears.
A 15-year-old boy, Parker, was rescued Monday after he, his older brother Sidney and a cousin left their village Friday night to fish for halibut with an expected return date of Sunday.
The teen is the only person who survived.
A family spokesperson, Darren Toolie-Noongwook, the older brother of Parker, asked that only the first names of his brothers be released. They requested the cousin’s name not be used without permission from his family.
Parker, Toolie-Noongwook said, was on the trip to earn money to get his hair permed.
“He was like, ‘I’m excited to get my perm now, mom,’” Toolie-Noongwook said from Savoonga over Zoom.
Toolie-Noongwook said his brother is recovering at home now.
“The boat flipped Friday around 8:03 p.m. That was when my brother passed, our older one. That was when he drowned around 8:03 p.m.,” Toolie-Noongwook said. “He and the other crew member [the cousin] and my brother, Parker, they climbed onto the top. Those two spent the first night together. They were doing good and then the next night the other crew member, he freaked out and he jumped off. So he drowned.”
The U.S. Coast Guard began searching for the boat after Alaska State Troopers notified them around 8:30 p.m. Sunday that the party was overdue. The boat was last seen Friday departing Savoonga and had been scheduled to return to St. Lawrence Island by about 3 a.m. Sunday.
Toolie-Noongwook said a fishing line had gotten tangled in the motor and caused the skiff to flip. Sidney, he says, got caught in the line and pulled under the ship.
The Coast Guard spotted the teenager, Parker, around 10:30 a.m. Monday and asked the Northwest Explorer and its crew of 13 to pick him up.
Video of the rescue, with Parker kneeling on the overturned skiff, has been widely shared.
Toolie-Noongwook described what his brother went through to survive.
“In middle of the night, waves hitting him, he was kneeling and praying,” Toolie-Noongwook said. “That’s all he was doing was praying. He believed that he was gonna make it. That’s how he got through it. I don’t know if news anchors can say that, but that’s how it happened. I don’t want that to be left out. That he was praying and believing that he was gonna make it. He’s 15. He’s our baby brother. He’s just a baby. But he had faith. That’s how he made it through.”
Toolie-Noongwook said one of his older brothers decided to shoot into the ocean to honor the two who died, and then quickly people in other villages said they’d join.
“And then the next thing we know, Nome is doing it and then Teller’s doing it, and then Shishmaref’s doing it, and then Nunam Iqua’s doing it. Wales. We have videos of Wales, Savoonga, Gambell, Nome, Shishmaref and Teller,” Toolie-Noongwook said.
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