MIKE FANCHER/THE SEATTLE TIMES FILE The fishing vessel Katmai, seen in this undated photo motoring toward the Ballard Locks in Seattle, went missing Wednesday near the Aleutian Islands with 11 crew members aboard
Posted on 10/23/2008 12:30:45 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Fishing Boat Sinks Off Alaska; 5 Killed, 2 Missing
Thursday , October 23, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Four crew members of a fishing boat were plucked alive from a life raft in frigid, stormy seas Wednesday, hours after their vessel was reported in distress, a Coast Guard spokesman says. Five crew members died, and two remained missing.
A search continued for the remaining two crew members of the Katmai, a 93-foot fish processor based on Alaska's Kodiak island, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said.
Read said two more deceased crew members were located Wednesday night by a fishing vessel assisting the Coast Guard in the search. Three bodies were recovered earlier.
The water was 43 degrees when rescuers hauled the survivors out of the raft, Read said. He couldn't speculate on how long they were in the raft because it was not known exactly when they abandoned their boat. Still, he said, several factors helped them survive.
"That takes a lot of fortitude and a lot of heart," Read said. Their survival suits, their physical condition, and an effort to keep one another semi-warm and awake all could have helped them endure, he said.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,443661,00.html
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MIKE FANCHER/THE SEATTLE TIMES FILE The fishing vessel Katmai, seen in this undated photo motoring toward the Ballard Locks in Seattle, went missing Wednesday near the Aleutian Islands with 11 crew members aboard
Wow, real life tragedy.... reminds me of that TV show about Alaska King Crab fishermen
To maintain a tradition of crap politics....”It’s Palin’ fault.”
Sound just like the Deadliest Catch or Ice Truckers.
Kudos to the determination and survival skills of those who were rescued.
Strange, the article calls it a processor, but clearly it’s set up for fishing, not processing, in the pic. 93’ is pretty damn small for a processor.
Didn’t Palin break two of her fingers working on one of these boats?
I used to work on a Catcher/Processor (it did both). You’re right. It looks too small to have anything to do with processing. Unless they’re only talking about it transporting live product.
Prayers for the survivors, the dead, and those they left behind.
I was going to suggest the same thing. 93 feet doesn’t leave room for much but rolled up net.
Yep, I've seen them. Most are substantially larger than 93', how big was the one you were on? What was your role? I'll bet you worked some brutal hours!
Tomorrow’s NYT headline: Palin kills 5, kidnaps 2.
When I wass young and aimless, my dad suggested i go to Alaska to go fishing. He also suggested work refueling nuke power plants. Some days i don’t think he liked me much.
I’m sure that was tough work. Just being aboard a boat on the ocean is hard enough.
180’ sounds a lot more plausible for a catcher processor.
There was a cool show on History or Discovery about a pollock catcher processor. Man, that looked like some NASTY hard work. I love watching Deadliest Catch, but would not want to do it!
God Bless those coasties!
LOL - I gotta pull that on my kid.
Yeah the Coasties are always there. A very dangerous job in northern coastal areas.
Yikes. It’s dangerous up there. Lots of ways to die all rolled up into one beautiful place.
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