Fishing boat missing in Aleutians

Coast Guard finds 2 dead, 4 rescued, 5 missing

A 93-foot fish processing boat, the Katmai, apparently has sunk in stormy weather off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in the Bering Sea. Five seamen are still missing.

The Coast Guard reported shortly after 5:30 p.m. that Alaska Coast Guard rescuers "were pulling four survivors from the water as we speak."

From the Seattle Times:

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Levi Read said a "good samaritan" boat that arrived on site about 3 p.m. pulled the body of a second man from the water. Its crew also recovered two empty survival suits, fishing gear and a life ring belonging to the missing fishing vessel Katmai, which had a crew of 11.

Crew members include men from the Northwest, including the Seattle area, according to a company spokesman.

Levi Read said the first dead seaman was spotted in high seas shortly after 1 p.m. The man was wearing a survival suit. The body has been taken to an island about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The suit bore the name of the Katmai, a 93-foot fishing vessel whose emergency locator beacon was triggered around 1 a.m. The devices can be activated by hand or automatically begin broadcasting when they are submerged. The device relays the location of the beacon via satellite to the Coast Guard.

From a Coast Guard press release

The Coast Guard is searching for 11 fishermen from the fishing vessel Katmai after responding to an Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon registered to the fishing vessel Katmai approximately 100 miles west of Adak, Alaska.

The Coast Guard recieved a 406 EPIRB signal at 1:08 a.m. today. The Coast Guard launched two C-130 long range surveillance aircrafts from Air Station Kodiak and an HH-60 Jayhawk from Kodiak. The C-130 also is carrying a relief crew for the HH-60.

The fishing vessel Katmai, 93-foot fish processing boat homeported in Kodiak.

The rescue helicopter crew located a survival suit and the EPIRB registered to the Katmai with strobe lights attached. They also located a partially deflated life raft along with the two life rafts the C-130 dropped previously.

The Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet, an Air National Guard C-130 and a blackhawk helicopter are enroute to assist in the search.

The search conditions are 30 knot winds from the north, 10-15 foot seas, rain and snow mix with visibility of 3 miles.

Coast Guard rescues Katmai survivors

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