HE SURVIVED TWO DAYS CLINGING TO AN OVERTURNED BOAT — THEN LEARNED HIS BROTHER AND COUSIN WERE GONE

A 15-year-old Alaska boy endured the freezing Bering Sea alone after a fishing trip turned into a desperate fight for survival.

For roughly two days, Derek Parker Aghnaanga, 15, clung to the overturned hull of a small fishing skiff in Alaska’s frigid Bering Sea.

He had no way to know when help would arrive.

And during the ordeal, he lost both of the family members who had been with him.

Aghnaanga was eventually spotted near St. Lawrence Island on Monday, September 7, when a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft located the overturned boat. A nearby fishing vessel, The Northwest Explorer, was sent to rescue him.

When the crew finally reached the teenager, he was still alive — kneeling on top of the capsized skiff in a bright yellow jacket.

“That’s one tough kid,” Captain Adam White later told KTUU-TV.

THE FISHING TRIP THAT NEVER ENDED

Aghnaanga had left the remote village of Savoonga with his 35-year-old older brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, and their cousin, Barton Rookok, 34, to go halibut fishing.

The three were expected to return early Sunday morning.

But they never came home.

After family members reported them missing, authorities began a search. Dense fog and darkness initially made conditions difficult, but the Coast Guard resumed the search by air Monday morning.

At about 10:30 a.m., the Coast Guard spotted the overturned skiff with Aghnaanga still on top.

HE WAS ALONE — BUT HE WAS STILL HOLDING ON

When rescuers reached him, Aghnaanga was suffering from symptoms of hypothermia.

The water was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10°C), and he had spent hours exposed to the cold and darkness.

Captain White said the teenager told rescuers that his brother was still beneath the overturned skiff.

He also explained that his cousin, who had initially been holding onto the boat, had slipped into the water the night before the rescue.

The bodies of both men were later recovered.

The crew of The Northwest Explorer wrapped Aghnaanga in blankets and used hot packs to help warm him after bringing him aboard.

“HE’S ALIVE. HE’S ALIVE.”

For Aghnaanga’s family, the moment rescuers found him was almost impossible to believe.

His aunt, Collen Walker, said relatives were listening to radio transmissions as the search unfolded.

Then came the words they had been praying to hear.

“We all cried and jumped for joy,” Walker told The Associated Press, recalling the captain announcing that they had found a child who was alive.

But the celebration quickly became mixed with grief when the family learned that the other two men had not survived.

HIS BROTHER WAS MORE THAN A BROTHER

Walker said Aghnaanga had often gone fishing with Kulowiyi and looked to his older brother as a father figure after their own father died when they were young.

Kulowiyi was a commercial fishing captain and was remembered by his family as a loving and generous provider who regularly helped people in Savoonga.

In the remote community, fishing is not simply a pastime. It is deeply connected to family, tradition and survival.

Now, the family is mourning the loss of two loved ones while celebrating the survival of a teenager who somehow managed to hold on.

For nearly two days, Aghnaanga remained on that overturned skiff in the cold Bering Sea.

Eventually, someone saw him.

And he was still alive.