A 15-year-old boy from Alaska endured a staggering 62 hours stranded at sea after a small family fishing boat overturned in the icy Bering Sea. During the ordeal, Derek Parker Aghnaanga reportedly tried desperately to keep hold of his brother and cousin after they drowned.
Aghnaanga had no food or drinking water as he clung to the capsized skiff near the remote St. Lawrence Island, facing brutal conditions for more than two days.
As he fought to survive in the freezing water, the teenager was eventually unable to keep the bodies of his two relatives with him.
His aunt, Colleen Walker, said the teenager had tried to hold on to his 35-year-old brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, and his 34-year-old cousin, Barton Rookok.
“He tried to hang on as long as he could after they drowned,” Walker wrote on a fundraising page set up in support of the grieving family.
Left by himself, Aghnaanga remained kneeling on top of the overturned vessel while it drifted through frigid Bering Sea waters in the direction of the Russian border.
His mother, Vina Kulowiyi, said faith helped carry her son through the frightening Alaska boat disaster.
“4 days and 3 nights. He lived on prayer with no food and water,” she wrote on Facebook. “He said he sat like this praying the whole time.”
Derek Parker Aghnaanga, 15, survived 62 harrowing hours on the overturned skiff after his brother and cousin died in the Bering Sea.
Aghnaanga, seen during an earlier boating trip, was showing signs of hypothermia when rescuers finally pulled him aboard.
Aghnaanga desperately tried to hold onto his cousin Barton Rookok, 34, pictured left, and his older brother Sidney Kulowiyi, right, after the pair drowned during the harrowing ordeal at sea
The extraordinary ordeal began September 4 when Aghnaanga headed out from Savoonga with his older brother and cousin to fish for halibut.
The three were aboard a small skiff when disaster struck near St. Lawrence Island.
A family spokesman has said one of their fishing lines may have become tangled in the motor, causing the vessel to overturn.
Kulowiyi, who was captaining the boat, became trapped underneath the overturned skiff and drowned, according to relatives.
Rookok initially managed to survive the capsize and remained with his teenage cousin for about another day.
But family members said he eventually became distressed, went into the water and also died.
Aghnaanga was suddenly the only survivor, stranded on the tiny overturned hull surrounded by miles of open ocean.
Walker has now revealed the agonizing lengths the boy went to in an attempt to keep his brother and cousin with him even after they had died.
Dramatic footage shows the exhausted 15-year-old kneeling alone on the capsized skiff after surviving for 62 hours without food or water
The Northwest Explorer’s fishing crew threw Aghnaanga a line before pulling the skiff alongside their vessel
Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, was Derek’s older brother and a father figure to the teenager after their own father died when they were younger
Barton Rookok, 34, survived alongside Derek for about a day after the skiff capsized before becoming distressed, entering the water and drowning
The tragedy was particularly devastating for the teenager because of his close relationship with his older brother.
Their father died when Aghnaanga was younger, and Walker previously said Kulowiyi had become something of a father figure to the boy.
Kulowiyi was a commercial fishing captain and was described by his aunt as a humble and loving ‘provider for people in the village.’
Fishing remains a vital part of everyday life in Savoonga, a community of roughly 800 people where catches are routinely shared with relatives and neighbors.
‘That’s how we do it in our community. We take care of one another,’ Walker previously said. ‘We still live a traditional way of life even if the world is changing.’
But as the hours passed at sea, nobody knew if Aghnaanga was still alive.
The fishing party had been expected to return home by early Sunday morning, but when they failed to appear, Alaska State Troopers eventually alerted the US Coast Guard at around 8.30pm that night.
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Aircraft were dispatched to scour the vast stretch of ocean.
Then, at around 10.30am on September 7, a Coast Guard aircrew spotted the teenager, wearing a bright yellow jacket and kneeling on top of the overturned skiff.
The Coast Guard dropped a life raft and emergency supplies before calling on the Northwest Explorer, a nearby fishing vessel carrying a crew of 13 along with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, to help bring him aboard.
‘We saw the unusual object on the horizon,’ Northwest Explorer captain Adam White later recalled. ‘We blasted our horn a couple times.’
Dramatic video captured the vessel approaching the tiny skiff and its lone survivor.
Crew members threw Aghnaanga a line and gradually pulled the overturned boat closer before maneuvering the exhausted teenager into a rescue basket and lifting him to safety.
The teenager was lifted from the overturned boat in a rescue basket after his extraordinary ordeal at sea
Once aboard, the hypothermic teenager told rescuers through chattering teeth that his brother was still beneath the skiff and revealed what had happened to his cousin
‘I mean, that’s one tough kid,’ White said.
But even as rescuers celebrated finding him alive, Aghnaanga was trying to tell them what had happened to his relatives.
‘Through the teeth chattering, [Aghnaanga] had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff,’ White told KTUU.
The teenager was suffering symptoms of hypothermia after his ordeal.
Crew members immediately wrapped him in blankets, placed hot packs around him and kept him talking as the Northwest Explorer headed toward Nome, where he could finally be reunited with his family.
For White, the mission left an emotional mark long after the teenager had been pulled aboard.
‘When you look into a family member’s eyes… there’s gratitude, but sorrow at the same time,’ the captain said.
‘I know I became overwhelmed with it so I had to go hide in my room for a minute.’
Back on shore, Aghnaanga’s relatives had been anxiously following radio transmissions from the rescue operation.
‘We all cried and jumped for joy when the captain announced on the radio, ‘We found a kid, he’s alive, he’s alive,’ Walker previously recalled.
Sunaaghruk Nunguk, posted a photo alongside Derek Aghnaanga, celebrating his return
Aghnaanga looked up to his older brother Sidney as a father figure after their own father died when the boys were younger
A tribute was held on the to Sidney Kulowiyi and Barton Rookok with residents firing rifles out to sea
Friends, family members and local residents held hands as they remembered the two men
Darren Toolie Noongwook celebrated his brother Derek’s extraordinary survival after the 15-year-old was finally rescued following days at sea
But their jubilation was immediately tempered by the realization that Aghnaanga had been found alone.
‘Then we asked, ‘Where’s the rest of them?”
The Northwest Explorer later recovered the bodies of Kulowiyi and Rookok, bringing a devastating end to the search for the other two fishermen.
A GoFundMe created for Aghnaanga and his family has since raised $48,000.
The money is intended to help cover funeral expenses and support the family as the teenage survivor recovers.
