Five missing as Sitka-based fishing boat capsizes

By
Suzanne Downing
-
20

Coast Guard and good Samaritans are searching for five people missing after the presumed capsizing of the fishing vessel Wind Walker, based out of Sitka. The most recent Wind Walker’s vessel registration shows Carmen (and/or Dale) Bartelds of Sitka as the owner; however we have learned the vessel was sold in 2023 to Travis Kapp, dba Mermaid Fisheries, LLC.

At 12:10 a.m. on Sunday the crew called in a mayday to the Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska watchstanders, saying they were “overturning.” The Coast Guard attempted to gather more information but was not successful in getting a response. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter out of Sitka, and a Juneau-based search boat headed to the scene.

The search area is around Pt. Couverden near Hoonah, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The last-known sighting was west of Rocky Island, about 15 miles west of Juneau, around Icy Strait/Chatham Strait.

Coast Guard vessels and the state ferry M/V Hubbard, which was first on the scene, are involved in the search for the 50-foot-long seiner.

Five people were thought to be on board based on “reports from individuals familiar with those aboard the vessel,” the Coast Guard said in a press release. Searchers reportedly have found seven cold-water survival gear and other emergency items. No people had been located as of Sunday afternoon.

Weather in the area included heavy snow and winds between 45-60 mph, with 6-foot seas.

20 COMMENTS

  2. This bad weather was fully predicted with high winds, snow, freezing spray. What were they doing out there?

  7. As a mother of a young fisherman up there, my heart is being ripped from my soul right now. God be with you all in this time of terror, and if all you can do to help is to pray right now , then for gods sake let’s all start praying together! Right now!!!! For everybody!! Amen🙏

  9. You cant judge a captain from your armchair. I skippered those waters for years. pnw too. A storm can come up with no warning. God rest their souls. I pray for the families.

    • Right on! I love your outlook. We need not play arm chair quarter back!
      Just try and take the blinders off and look at big picture!
      And 🙏

    • A storm can come up without warning? Interesting.

      This storm moved across the Gulf of Alaska towards Hoonah in the last 48 hours with Gale force winds, spray, and snow.

      But I am sure the NWS missed something?

    • Dan
      If you’re really a boat captain then you know there are multiple weather sources to get real time information before motoring into a large storm.
      What we don’t know is what condition was the boats mechanical systems in.
      Fact remains the captain decides when the boat travels.

  10. The men and women who are fishing know the risks that come with fishing and know that it is a bigger risk to fish in the winter. I personally would not have been trying to radio anyone if they had already rolled over, would have been with the life raft and had it deployed and operational for the crew to get on. But we will be praying for them all. They will be in our hearts and minds as we are taking our next adventure in fishing and we will continue to keep them and everyone else that has lost their lives at sea , memory alive, we will continue on and keep living our way of life and doing our best , rest in peace Wind walker., and crewmen!

    • Damn dude how can you make a comment like that about how you would have done it differently I’ve fished my whole life and with what little do know for sure happened it probably happened fast and they did what we’re trained to do but it likely happened faster then they could react for emergencys every crew has a pre assigned and pre rehearsed duty for fighting a fire , flooding, abandoned ship, man over board , and so forth example abandoned ship might be assigned : the captain and one guy will be inchargenof launching the raft while one crew radios mayday and the position and how many lives are on board and another crew is tasked with getting survival suits to every one and that’s if it’s sinking slow enough and if your rolling over fast the only way not to die is get get out of the boat any way you can before she goes cause when she does your trapped your not getting a door open a windows not with all the watter rushing in and that guts me what those guys had to go through I’m sorry but this hits so close to home and reading that really isn’t nice

      • I agree – if you weren’t there, you can’t say.

        Mother of 5 Alaskan sons here – commercial fishermen, commercial divers.
        It matters not the training, the skills & knowledge in some situations.
        My oldest son saved my life at age 8, yet he, in other circumstances is not the “fight or flight” guy, in other circumstances, he is the “freeze” guy.
        One of my twins, a diver, had lost air / had his hose pulled off (twice in different circumstances), & thought about panicking for about 1/2 a second – but didn’t.
        People do what they do at the time.
        Their mindset, the cold, the ones around them, we don’t know.
        Some of us push people out of the way & put the fire out (me, at 12, when our parents were gone & my 9 yr old brother set the bathroom on fire), and some are heroes in other situations.
        I agree with you – so many things to consider, I cry when thinking of it. My first husband & his brother died in these dark cold waters – My 2 oldest don’t remember their father. The weather didn’t start bad & they weren’t too far from land- but it turned bad FAST.
        2 out of 3 died that night. So many lives changed forever all those years ago.

  13. As someone who grew up fishing in these waters – a 50’ seiner should have been okay in 6 foot seas. Stop placing judgement on captain when we don’t know full story. This size vessel going down in these seas is an indication that there was a mechanical problem or vessel iced up more than expected and was hit by a rouge wave.

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