The U.S. Coast Guard rescued nine people from a fishing vessel that ran aground Monday morning near St. George Island in the Bering Sea, the agency said in a press release. The release said that no one was injured.
The Coast Guard said the fishing vessel Arctic Sea ran aground along the island’s northern shoreline just after 4 a.m. Monday. The boat was taking on water, and there were nine people on board.
Todd Lestenkof, a lifelong resident of St. George, said he learned of the situation from fellow community members.
“Somebody said they heard an EPIRB going off at 7:30, and they can’t see anything,” he said. “But you can see the lights coming from underneath the cliffs there.”
An EPIRB is a device that can transmit a vessel’s location during an emergency.
According to the Coast Guard, another fishing vessel, the North Sea, was nearby as the situation unfolded. Strong winds and rough seas made it unsafe for that crew to help directly — winds were near 50 mph, with waves around 10 feet high. But the North Sea stayed nearby so its crew could share updates over marine radio.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter from Cold Bay and a C-130 military transport plane from Kodiak. A Coast Guard cutter also headed toward the area.
Because of the distance and weather, it took about five hours for crews to reach St. George Island, the agency said.
Lestenkof said he saw the C-130 at about 9:30 a.m.
“They started orbiting for about an hour,” he said. “Thinking about 10-10:30, the helicopter arrived.”
The Coast Guard says the helicopter lifted all nine people off the grounded vessel and flew them to St. Paul Island for medical assistance.
This is not the first time a vessel has run aground in the area. The Coast Guard said that in February of 1996, the fishing vessel All American ran aground near St. George Island. No one was hurt in that incident either.
Lestenkof said this rescue shows how important it is to have the Coast Guard closer to the Pribilof Islands. The nearest Coast Guard station is in Kodiak.
“I feel there should be one either on the Pribilofs or Dutch Harbor, or somewhere a little closer,” he said. “Time is of the essence when it comes to Bering Sea emergencies.”
In a region with a long memory of losses at sea, community members say the rescue underscores the risks fishermen face and the importance of having help nearby when emergencies happen.
Salvage work on the Arctic Sea will be handled by Resolve Marine, an emergency response company that specializes in helping ships when something goes wrong at sea.
