Holy crap! Great job by rescuers. Sadly, his brother and cousin died in the capsizing of their skiff. Imagine this happening to you. So frightening. This kid was clinging to the capsized boat for days in 50 degree water and winds.
https://apnews.com/article/alaska-teen-survives-capsized-boat-days-53c9b9fd56b608a353643f3582d263f4
Some more details about the accident:
[A relative] Toolie-Noongwook said the family works in commercial fishing, which requires them to stay out on the water for days at a time. It’s a difficult and physically taxing job, he said, and the crew were exhausted when a fishing line got caught in the boat’s motor. “Once the motor got caught in the fishing line, they tried to untangle it, but they couldn’t because of how bad it was tangled,” Toolie-Noongwook said, recounting what Parker had told the family. “So they were just sitting, and then later on at the end of the night, the weather got bad and the boat flipped.”…
Parker and their cousin were together through the night until, Toolie-Noongwook said, his cousin started to panic. “The other crew member — our cousin — he started freaking out, and he jumped ship,” he said. “And he only swam five to six feet, and he sadly had drowned.”
Oh, man. That guy is very lucky to have survived. The boy who jumped would have immediately gone into shock when he hit that frigid water and may not have been able to breathe.
St. Lawrence Island is extremely remote, lying about halfway between the Alaska coast and the Kamchatka Peninsula.