A teenage boy who spent days stranded at sea was captured on dramatic video clinging to his family’s overturned boat in the freezing waters off Alaska.
Derek Parker Aghnaanga, 15, was spotted kneeling alone on the upturned skiff near remote St. Lawrence Island after surviving without food or water as the vessel drifted through the frigid Bering Sea toward the Russian border.
The extraordinary footage shows the teenager, wearing a bright yellow jacket, perched on the hull as the Northwest Explorer approaches.
Crew members blast the ship’s horn before throwing Aghnaanga a line and slowly pulling the tiny vessel toward them.
They then maneuver the exhausted teenager into a rescue basket and finally lift him to safety.
But the incredible rescue quickly gave way to heartbreak as the fishing crew who hauled him aboard learned the tragic fate of his brother and cousin.
Through chattering teeth, Aghnaanga told his rescuers that his 35-year-old brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, was still beneath the overturned skiff and that his 34-year-old cousin, Barton Rookok, had managed to cling to the boat alongside him before slipping away.
The bodies of both men were later recovered.
Derek Parker Aghnaanga, 15, survived for days clinging to an overturned skiff in the freezing Bering Sea off St. Lawrence Island, Alaska
Aghnaanga, pictured on an earlier boat trip, was suffering symptoms of hypothermia when rescuers finally brought him aboard
The Northwest Explorer’s fishing crew threw Aghnaanga a line before pulling the skiff alongside their vessel
‘It’s unbelievable. It’s remarkable and it’s cold. The water is 10 degrees Celsius (50F),’ Northwest Explorer captain Adam White told Alaska’s News Source.
Aghnaanga had been fishing for halibut with Kulowiyi and Rookok when their small boat capsized last Saturday night far out at sea.
His mother said Kulowiyi, the boat’s captain, became trapped underneath the vessel and died, while Rookok initially survived alongside the teenager.
Family members said Aghnaanga desperately tried to hold onto the boat after the other two drowned.
His cousin survived for about a day following the capsize before he too drowned, according to Aghnaanga’s mother, leaving the 15-year-old floating alone on the overturned hull on the open ocean.
‘I mean, that’s one tough kid,’ White said.
The ordeal began after the three left Savoonga, a village of roughly 800 people on St. Lawrence Island, last Friday. They had been expected to return by around 3am on Sunday.
But when they failed to come home, Alaska State Troopers alerted the US Coast Guard at around 8.30pm last Sunday night and a desperate search began.
Dramatic video shows the exhausted teenager kneeling on the capsized boat as rescuers finally reach him
Aghnaanga was ultimately left alone on the overturned hull without food or water as he waited desperately for rescue
A Coast Guard aircrew spotted the stranded teenager before directing the Northwest Explorer toward him
Aghnaanga looked up to his older brother as a father figure after the pair lost their own father when they were younger
Planes and helicopters scoured the waters before a Coast Guard aircrew finally spotted Aghnaanga at around 10.30am on Monday.
The crew dropped a raft and emergency supplies before contacting the Northwest Explorer, which was nearby carrying a crew of 13 as well as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists.
‘We saw the unusual object on the horizon,’ White recalled. ‘We blasted our horn a couple times.’
As the vessel drew closer, what had appeared to be an object in the vast expanse of water became something extraordinary: a teenage boy still alive on top of an overturned boat.
The rescue video captures the final moments of Aghnaanga’s fight for survival as the larger vessel edges alongside the skiff and its crew works to bring him aboard.
He was suffering symptoms of hypothermia by the time he reached the Northwest Explorer, according to the Coast Guard.
Crew members wrapped him in blankets, covered him with hot packs and kept him talking as they headed toward Nome, where he could be reunited with family.
Aghnaanga is seen being rescued by a fishing vessel on Monday in the Bering Sea near St. Lawrence Island, Alaska after spending days at sea
The teenager was lifted from the overturned boat in a rescue basket after his extraordinary ordeal at sea
It was only when Aghnaanga was finally brought aboard he was able to tell the crew of the deaths of his brother and cousin who had been with him at the time
Meanwhile, Aghnaanga’s relatives were listening anxiously to radio transmissions from the rescue.
His mother listened as other family members gathered around a speakerphone, according to the boy’s aunt, Collen Walker.
Then came the words they had been praying to hear.
‘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 said.
But almost immediately, celebration turned to dread.
‘Then we asked, “Where’s the rest of them?”‘
The deaths have devastated a close-knit community where fishing remains both a way of life and an essential source of food.
Aghnaanga regularly went fishing with his older brother and viewed him as a father figure after their own dad died when the boys were younger, Walker said.
Kulowiyi was a commercial fishing captain whom his aunt described as a humble and loving ‘provider for people in the village.’
Aghnaanga told his rescuers that his brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, was still beneath the overturned skiff and that his cousin, Barton Rookok, 34, pictured, had managed to cling to the boat alongside him before slipping away
Derek’s older brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, right, also drowned while out at sea but his body was recovered. He is pictured alongside his sister, Juanita Kulowiyi, left, in 2021
Darren Toolie Noongwook posted a celebratory post after his brother, Derek Parker Aghnaanga, 15, was rescued after spending days at sea
Halibut fishing is deeply embedded in life in Savoonga, where jobs can be scarce and fishermen routinely share their catches with relatives and neighbors.
‘That’s how we do it in our community. We take care of one another,’ Walker said. ‘We still live a traditional way of life even if the world is changing.’
The Alaska State Troopers formally identified Kulowiyi and Rookok on Thursday.
For White and his crew, the emotional impact of what they had witnessed did not end when Aghnaanga was safely aboard.
They had pulled a 15-year-old from a potentially deadly stretch of ocean after an extraordinary battle for survival – but were also carrying him home to a family mourning two men.
‘When you look into a family member’s eyes… there’s gratitude, but sorrow at the same time,’ White said.
‘I know I became overwhelmed with it so I had to go hide in my room for a minute.’
A GoFundMe has since generated funds to support Aghnaanga and help his grieving family with funeral expenses and everyday costs.
