While reports of gray whale strandings along the Pacific coast have jumped since 2019, there’s at least one place where these whales seem to be thriving. Hundreds of gray whales migrating from Mexico to their Arctic feeding grounds are stopping in Sitka along their route. 

Sitka has always been home to charismatic megafauna like humpbacks and Steller’s sea lions, but over the past few years, a new marine all-star has emerged. 

“We were just going to sit down there to go to shore and go walk the beach, and these two gray whales came right up to us.”  

That’s Blain Anderson, captain of the sailboat Bob, describing an encounter with a gray whale just west of Sitka. 

Gray whales have often visited Sitka, but over the past few years, boaters and biologists have seen an unusual increase in gray whale activity. 

“I was just talking to somebody up in the parking lot who said at one point last year, he estimated over 700 whales – gray whales,” Anderson said.

Seven hundred might be on the high end, but whale biologist Lauren Wild says the number of gray whales in Sitka Sound used to hover around 10 or 20. Since 2019,  it’s been closer to 150.  As Wild put it, “it’s whale soup out here.” 

Most of the news about gray whales in recent years has been pretty dismal. In May 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared an ongoing  “unusual mortality event” due to elevated strandings of West-coast gray whales. Before that, a 2015-2016 marine heat wave, sometimes referred to as “the blob,” devastated Pacific-coast fauna from whales, to seabirds.

In Sitka, though? 

“If people have been seeing them, they’re seeing whales rolling around and playing with each other,” Wild said. “They’re seeing a lot of feeding behavior, a lot of social behavior. Some people are seeing what looks like mating behavior.”

Like humpbacks, which are commonly seen in Sitka Sound, gray whales use baleen to feed. Unlike humpbacks, gray whales feed in the shallows, filtering silt and sand to get to tiny critters, like shrimp. Gray whales are smaller and often covered in parasitic barnacles and long scars from rolling around on the rocks. 

Wild usually studies humpbacks and sperm whales, but the gray whale influx has piqued her interest. While it’s not entirely clear what is bringing this barnacle-covered baleen bonanza to the waters of Sitka Sound, Wild has a few ideas.

“We sort of wondered if the marine heatwave maybe disrupted some of the the reliability of food in the Bering Sea and Chukchi seas in the summer,” Wild said. “And if that possibly, sort of prompted these whales to be looking for more opportunistic places to forage along their migration routes, so they weren’t relying so much on those food sources.”

The food source? Likely herring eggs along the outer coast of Kruzof island. 

“If you look at a map, the tip of Cape Edgecumbe is right along the outer coast,” Wild said. “If whales are migrating by and they just happen to be there at the right time, they might sort of start seeing more of that herring spawn, and it might pique their attention.”

Pacific herring spawn each spring in the waters around Sitka, and these fish – and their eggs – are an important food source for marine organisms and humans alike. Herring roe in Sitka is already a hotly contested resource, and now these motivated mysticetes may have joined the competition.

Wild said that the timing and location of gray whale sightings correspond to areas of herring spawn. She also pointed to observations from Alaska Department of Fish and Game spawn surveys:

“They’ll be diving and see gray whales around their dive boat and stuff,” Wild said. “So they’re certainly in the same area that those eggs are. And then they’ve seen a few times, you know, kelp beds that look sort of shredded like, and they’re imagining that is probably gray whales coming through and sucking up eggs off the kelp and rolling around in it.”

Wild hopes to confirm exactly these whales are eating – even if the fieldwork gets messy. 

“Obviously you don’t know when they’re going to defecate,” Wild said. “So you kind of have to be at the right place at the right time. And we’ll use a little skim, almost like a fish pond net, that’s fine mesh, to just sort of scoop it up. You can also scoop it up with water in a Nalgene or something.”

Understanding what these whales eat is one part of the puzzle. Wild is also hoping to start building a catalog to identify and track individual whales to figure out which whales are coming to Sitka, and where else they’re going along their migration route. 

In the meantime, both Wild and Anderson urge boaters to be cautious around gray whales, which may be more likely to approach humans than the average Sitka humpback. In Mexico, boaters can legally approach – and interact with – gray whales. 

“They get chin scratches,” Anderson said. “And you know, I’ve seen pictures of people kissing them.  And it’s something that perhaps they’ve gotten used to.” 

The whales may ignore political borders, but Alaska boaters are still required to follow the Marine Mammal Protection Act – to avoid harassing whales, NOAA encourages boaters to stay 100 yards away and put engines into neutral if a whale approaches.

We don’t know what will happen in the future with these new visitors, or what the implications are for the West-Coast gray whale population as a whole, but for now, it seems that this struggling population has found a haven in Sitka feeding, socializing, and even – as Anderson has observed a few times – mating. 

As Anderson noted, “It was all supposed to happen down to Mexico, but it does seem like they’re continuing their frisky ways up in – as we call it – romantic Sitka Sound.”

To report a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead marine mammal, call the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Statewide 24-hour Stranding Hotline: (877) 925-7773.

Eight decades after the fact, the federal government plans to spend $2.2 million to clean up a contaminated former army site on Kruzof Island near Sitka. It isn’t going to happen overnight. The Army Corps is still designing the effort. Actual work and removal of the PCB-contaminated soils isn’t expected until 2024.

But to understand how and why Fort Babcock came to be requires a 20th Century history lesson on the rise of Imperial Japan as a Pacific power. And few people in Sitka know as much about the area’s military history as high school teacher Matt Hunter. 

As an amateur historian, he curates a website on Sitka Harbor’s WWII-era military sites. He says when Imperial Japan invaded its neighbors in the 1930s, the United States realized it had few Pacific defenses outside of Hawaii and the Panama Canal zone.

“But Alaska, sort of the third vertex of a strategic triangle, was completely undefended,” he said.

Kruzof Island a critical part of Sitka Sound’s tripartite defensive battery

Fort Babcock was designed to be a keystone in the defense of Sitka Harbor, which during World War II, hosted a significant military presence to counter the threat from Imperial Japan. 

But today its legacy today is little more than abandoned buildings and contaminated soil near the shores of Sitka Sound.

Naval air stations were established on Kodiak Island, Dutch Harbor and Sitka. Defense of those naval bases fell to the U.S. Army which installed a battery of six-inch guns capable of striking an enemy ship from 12 miles away.

But as the tide of the war shifted, the threat from Imperial Japan receded, and by 1944 the military canceled the defense project. 

“And then as soon as they finished, they abandoned them and locked the doors and left,” Hunter said.

Today the site is heavily overgrown. But among the ruins there’s still evidence of the incredible effort by thousands of men.

“There’s even some notes on some of the work benches, and they’re written by the men who are in the construction battalion,” he said.

A nonagenarian veteran returns in 2010

One member of that battalion came back for a visit more than a decade ago. 

“I’m just like (Gen. Douglas) MacArthur wading ashore,” 93-year-old Bob Vollmer laughingly told KCAW during a visit to Kruzof Island in 2010. “MacArthur said, ‘I shall return!’”

“I didn’t like that guy, though,” he added.

KCAW’s Ed Ronco shadowed Vollmer and filed a story for the Alaska Public Radio Network about the Indiana man who’d spent most of 1943 helping build Fort Babcock.

Vollmer passed away earlier this month at the age of 104. But in an interview with KCAW some 11 years back, he expressed surprise by how much nature had taken over what had been a bustling observation post during the war. 

“I’m real happy to know, like places like this, they are still environmentally sound,” he said as he took in the thick foliage that had reclaimed the former fort site.

But Fort Babcock is not as pristine as it may have appeared to Vollmer in 2010. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is tasked with cleaning up the hundreds of potentially contaminated former military sites in Alaska, discovered serious contamination several years later. 

Beth Astley is the Army Corps’ project manager overseeing cleanup of the site. She says investigators knew about the old oil tanks. But in 2012 and 2013 they dug deeper. 

“That’s when we discovered that there was PCB contamination at the former power plant,” she told CoastAlaska in a recent interview.

In a 259-page decision document filed last August, the Army Corps announced plans to remove about 559 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil and place them in what Astley calls “super sacks.” 

“Which are large sacks that are specially made to hold contaminated soil. And then those bags would then be put on to a barge and then they would be taken to a port and then to the landfill (in the Lower 48),” she said.

PCBs are highly toxic and carcinogenic; they can bioaccumulate in humans.

“They don’t seem to go away very quickly,” Astley said. “They can persist for a really long time.”

Sitka tribal officials assess cleanup plan

Sitka Tribe of Alaska has been pushing for the cleanup of Shoals Point. People hunt, fish and gather traditional foods on Kruzof Island, just a 10-mile skiff ride across the sound from Sitka. 

“The Tribe is pleased that … the Army Corps is going forward with cleaning up the site, because it’s long overdue,” said Helen Dangel, a biologist who works for the Sitka tribe.

She works as a natural resources specialist and says the Army Corps’ priority seems to be the most hazardous waste at the former Fort Babcock site.

“But that doesn’t mean that all of the contaminants will be cleaned up,” Dangel told CoastAlaska. “In the document, there’s a lot of talk about cleanup levels, and if there’s a complete pathway to humans, through air through, through drinking water, through skin contact, or through eating. And so if they determine that there’s not a complete pathway, then some of the contaminants aren’t getting cleaned up.”

The Army Corps says it plans to remediate the area to residential standards. And no additional environmental monitoring would be required. 

Matt Hunter, the math and physics teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, says Shoals Point is a fantastic place to visit. Especially for anyone interested in Alaska’s early 20th century history when Sitka was a hive of military activity on what’s now an uninhabited island.

“It’s not like a park or something that’s had interpretation and doors locked, everything’s wide open,” Hunter said. “And it’s also a very unique place. Being on this volcanic island with all the surf coming in, and the open ocean is absolutely beautiful.”

The money is coming from the Division of Homeland Security. The new equipment will be installed at the Mud Bay repeater site located on Kruzof Island. But while Mud Bay is more than a dozen miles outside of Sitka, Fire Chief Craig Warren said it would actually improve their radio reception closer to town. 

The fire department and police department both have range issues when it comes to Granite Creek. Nelson Logging Road and Katlian Bay Road could be a very big problem for us in the future,” Warren said. “Increased road transportation means that more people could go off road and get lost or need assistance…so this is going to solve some of our existing communications holes, but will also help us cover the expansion of the Katlian Bay Road.”

Assembly member Dave Miller said the Mud Bay project has been in the works since the state announced the Katlian Bay Road extension.

“And it really came to light when there was that excavator that went in the water out there,” the retired fire chief said, recalling a construction accident in 2019 when an excavator slid into the bay, claiming the life of the man operating the equipment.

“And our resources were taxed to the limit for getting radio conversations back and forth,” Miller said of the local emergency response. “So this is a great project. This is one that is, in my opinion, really needed.”

The Assembly unanimously approved the funding on second reading.

Sitka’s marine mammal stranding network headed to Kruzof Island on Thursday (3-18-21) to conduct its first necropsy on a dead humpback whale in five years. They wanted to learn more about why the whale died.

The Coast Guard reported the dead 47-foot female humpback to NOAA on Sunday evening. It had washed ashore on the south end of Kruzof Island.

Bad weather delayed the team until Thursday, and when they finally arrived, they found the whale in a different position.

“When we got out there, the whale had rotated 180 degrees and then rotated onto its stomach from all the surf and swell out there,” University of Alaska Southeast researcher Lauren Wild said. Wild is also the volunteer coordinator for Sitka’s stranding network.

She said that the whale had already started to decompose when they arrived. It’s a smell that she’s gotten used to over the years, but for newbies, it can be…shocking.

“It’s funny to watch people’s facial expressions change as they move towards this whale, and they just kind of have this look of horror like ‘Do I have to keep walking forward, or can I stop now?'” she said.

Despite the smell, the team of UAS researchers and local volunteers from the city, school district and Sitka Tribe of Alaska got to work cutting the whale open. It took five and a half hours and 10 people to take photos and notes, collect tissue samples, and examine the whale for signs of trauma. 

“It takes a while and a lot of muscle power to cut through the blubber and then flense that back and peel it back and then cut through the muscle to access the inner organs,” Wild said.

Conducting a necropsy can be dangerous. If the whale is bloated, responders have to take care that it doesn’t explode when they cut it open, although that’s rare and easy to avoid, Wild said. Carcasses can also attract bears. And the scenes can be hectic, with lots of people working quickly with sharp tools. All of the responders have received specialized training from NOAA.

“You just have to be really careful especially because whales are really oily; the blubber is just really oily,” Wild said. “So as you start cutting, the animal’s just oozing oils, and so that makes things really slippery.”

Wild said whale necropsies in Sitka Sound are fairly uncommon. When they receive a notice of a dead whale, they can’t always get to it or sometimes it’s washed away by the time they do. But conducting necropsies is important because it can teach researchers about whales and any changes that might be happening in their environments.

“I like to think of a dead whale as kind of like a goldmine of opportunity, and there’s always information that can be gleaned from it,” Wild said. “It’s just a matter of trying to get as many people to help figure that out in the short amount of time that you have.”

As far as what killed this humpback, Wild said they didn’t find a ‘smoking gun.’ The whale looked healthy and its belly was full of fish–most likely herring. But they did find some evidence of blunt trauma. They sent samples off to the lab, and they’ll have to wait for the results to find out more.

To report a marine mammal stranding, you can call NOAA Fisheries Alaska marine mammal stranding hotline at 877-925-7773.

Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.

Despite their proximity to the trapped whales, Edwards, Putz, and Mason didn’t score a fantastic pic. “Unfortunately most of our photos and videos are more like the Loch Ness monster,” said Edwards, “where you can tell there’s something there.” In the red circle, however, a whale tail is clearly visible. (Leah Mason image)

Gray whale strandings are on the rise, on the west coast and in Alaska. Biologists don’t fully understand what causes the huge animals to become caught upriver, or on a beach — which makes the collection of tissue samples and other data from the dead whales critically important. Near Sitka recently, three campers had an unprecedented opportunity to aid the cause of science when they discovered a stranded gray whale and her calf. But the animals — who were both quite alive — were no help at all.

Note: If you see a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead marine mammal, NOAA wants to hear about it. The 24-hour stranding hotline is (877) 925-7773.

Perry Edwards, Michelle Putz, and Leah Mason are sheltering on my front porch from a light summer rain. They’re just back from a long June weekend on Kruzof Island, Sitka’s wild and remote next-door neighbor to the west.

Kruzof is famous for its black sand beaches, open to the Pacific swells and surf. The three were staying at the North Beach Cabin. Edwards woke up early to go beachcombing.

Edwards – And it was a super-low tide. The beach just went on forever. I looked over at that rock wall on the south end, and I saw something blow. And I thought, ‘Maybe that’s just the splashing of a wave, there’s not enough water for anything to be there.’ And then I looked again and I saw a pectoral fin flip over. And I ran back to the cabin and said, ‘Hey, Michelle and Leah, there’s a whale that’s stranded and there’s no way it can get out.’

This is the scene Perry Edwards encountered early in the morning on North Beach, Kruzof Island, during an extreme low tide. The gray whale cow and calf are churning the water in the tidepool adjacent to the rocky point. (Perry Edwards photo)

A whale this close to a beach — not to mention stuck on it —  is not uncommon. Not for gray whales, anyway. They’re benthic feeders, who dredge the ocean bottom for food.

“It’s not unusual to see gray whales in the area, foraging or swimming near shore,” said Mandy Keogh, the Alaska Stranding Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or NOAA. She adds, “So they will go down and disturb the sedimentation, to get arthropods and other organisms like that. It’s not uncommon to see them near shore in shallow waters.”

Keogh says this whale was not stranded by definition, but “alive, onshore, and unable to return to the water.” But try telling that to the whale — or in this case, whales. Because there were two, a mother and calf.

Mason – These whales were in such a small space that it looked like eels in a  bucket, roiling in there.

Putz – You could see their backs and most of their bodies sticking above water for much of the time. There was a female, we think, and a calf — the calf being three-quarters the size of the female. And the female was trying constantly to find different ways to get out. She would be pushing her way out swimming around and at times she’d get stuck on one of the sandbars and have to inch her way off of it so that she could get into slightly deeper water.

The tidepool was about five feet deep — just enough water to support the whales and prevent them from being crushed by their own weight (which would constitute a legitimate stranding). But the very low tide appeared to be at its lowest. Edwards and Putz both work for the US Forest Service, where Edwards is a biologist and district ranger. He radioed the Sitka Forest Service dispatcher to report the situation to NOAA.

That was really all they could do — or even bear.

Mason – We know in our hearts that they have gone through the worst and  they’re really active, so that’s a good sign. And if we sit here and watch we’re going to give ourselves ulcers. 

Putz – And if they need anything, there’s very little we can do. Maybe we have a bucket or two off the boat and some blankets, and this is going to be ugly if we have to do anything.

Mason – They’re still pretty big animals.

Putz – Really big.

Mason – Amazing for how close they came. I’ve got great shots of nostrils, within three or four feet of the rocks where we were standing.

Mandy Keogh is grateful that the three did not try to intervene. “You’re looking at a 40-50 foot whale, and if it’s stranded and in distress, you can easily become injured, just by its trying to reposition itself or move,”she said.

Keogh says the best thing anyone can do during a marine mammal stranding is to take pictures, and report the event to NOAA. If a pathologist can get to the animal soon after it dies, and collect and preserve tissue samples, researchers might be able to unravel why the animal went ashore — whether due to disease or malnutrition, or other cause. Last year in Alaska, forty gray whales beached and died, and this year we’re already ahead of that alarming pace. Biologists refer to it as an “unusual mortality event.”

A couple of hours later, our trio returned to see how the mom and calf were faring — and perhaps to offer some inter-species support.

Mason – The larger animal was just ceaseless. Just circling, and having a go at the sandbar, and coming back.

Putz – We saw her surfing in the waves a few times. You’d see her going along sideways, and suddenly you’d see a whale, in the wave — you could see her shadow in the wave sideways. It was quite beautiful, and sad.

KCAW – You’d love to be able to tell them to just be patient, the tide’s coming in.

Edwards – Right. We were 12-15 feet away on the rocks, and Jan Straley felt very strongly that absolutely they could hear us, because we were cheering them on, talking to each other. She was very confident that they could hear that we were right there.

Jan Straley is a whale biologist in Sitka, and a member of the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network — which kicked into action after Edwards’ radio call. Plans were already underway to perform a necropsy on these whales. But, nature did not cooperate. The Stranding Network would have to settle for an interview after-the-fact.

Edwards – The cow made yet another run which we didn’t think was going to get anywhere, and she went through. And as soon as she did, that second whale just shot right out behind her and we watched them go off into deeper water, and we cheered them on, and it was also at the same time that the Coast Guard was flying over because unbeknownst to us there were a whole bunch of things that were put into play with NOAA and the Coast Guard, and Jan Straley here in town, trying to figure out what’s going on with this whole thing.

So, science was thwarted and the whales got away. But Edwards, Putz, and Mason got the story of a lifetime, and some fantastic pictures, right? As it happens, gray whales in the surf aren’t all that photogenic.

Edwards – …so there were flippers and stuff. Unfortunately most of our photos and videos are more like the Loch Ness monster, where you can tell there’s something there…

Putz – Sasquatch! We saw Sasquatch (laughs)…

Human skeletal remains have been discovered on Kruzof Island about 5 miles from Sitka. Although the identity of the deceased remains unknown, officials believe the remains are contemporary — rather than archaeological.

Sitka Police Chief Robert Baty said they received a call on Sunday, April 12, around 3:30 in the afternoon. A group of hikers in the Babcock Fort area had discovered human remains. The police department responded, along with Alaska State troopers and the Forest Service. 

“We did a quick scene, based on the time and location, we were able to recover a skull and lower jaw and other remains,” Baty said. “We marked our area and made some other plans to go back in.”

The remains were about 500 yards from the shoreline, in the woods. A second search a week later uncovered additional remains, all believed to be a part of the same body. 

“We couldn’t tell male or female,” Baty said. “The remains were sent to the state medical examiner’s office to make that determination. It was pretty apparent they were not archaeological in nature. They didn’t exhibit a bunch of age and any of the things you would normally see for bones that are dated.”

The identity of the deceased person remains unknown, as is the cause of death. The remains were sent to the State of Alaska Medical Examiner’s office, and the Alaska State Crime Lab for examination. 

“Right now, we’re just waiting on trying to identify the person so we can start backtracking and figure out what happened here,” Baty said.    

Baty said the investigation is ongoing, but couldn’t give a precise timeline for when he will have more information from the state. Many state agencies are currently operating with reduced staff due to the coronavirus pandemic, including the state crime lab, so it could take longer than usual to get results. 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story mistakenly noted March 12 as the date the remains were discovered on Kruzof Island. April 12 is the correct date. 

Tyler and Ariel Miller, brother and sister, take a break from their hard work building structures for coho salmon in the Shelikof River. Photo by Katherine Rose, KCAW.

Heavy equipment is rumbling across Kruzof Island near Sitka again, but this time the big rigs are not removing trees — instead, they’re putting them back. The Forest Service is restoring salmon habitat on the Shelikov River that was damaged by logging nearly 50 years ago.  KCAW’s Katherine Rose recently visited the project to learn why it takes so much noise to fix a forest.

Downloadable audio.

You’re on a winding road overgrown with alders. You see a sign that says “Shelikof River Restoration Project ahead.” You might expect to hear something like this…

Sounds of the river, peaceful ambient noise

But for the next few weeks, if you wander deep in the forest on Kruzof Island, you may hear something like this instead…

Sounds of machinery and trees being crushed

That’s Todd Miller knocking over alders with his excavator.  When you hear the trees snap and fall, you might immediately think “destruction.” Because that’s what it sounds like. Not restoration.

“When this was logged back in the day it was not regulated as much. There was a lot of logging where they actually used the rivers as roads. They’d just get in ’em with their dozers, and it was an easy way to move wood,” said Todd. 

Todd owns TM Construction, which typically does commercial tree thinning. But today he’s working with the Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy on a watershed restoration project to rebuild the coho salmon habitat.

“He’s gonna jump over there and start building that trail in there, and we’re gonna build a structure for the fish.”

Todd’s son, Tyler, is the foreman, and he runs the skidder, or the “Big Twig Rig” as he calls it.

“I think just because it makes big trees look like twigs, basically. It’s got probably about fifty-inch tires with massive chains on it. It’s basically like a big monster truck,” said Tyler. 

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With the Big Twig Rig, Tyler grabs the trees, bringing them to his dad. Then Todd uses the excavator to strategically place them in the river, using the alders and larger trees to both redirect the path of the river and build a sort-of dam. And then there’s Todd’s daughter, Ariel. She’s only 14, but she has an important job too.

“I put boom in the water which is a round absorbent pad that, if they break a HydroHose or leak oil, the boom will collect it,” said Ariel. 

And Todd says those aren’t the only spills that happen on the job.

“First day we were working in the river with Marty. A log fell out of the bucket and I dropped it or whatever, and splashed the inspector,” said Todd. 

“He stayed well away after that. He didn’t have time to duck or anything, he just took it all. I was laughing so hard, dad was like, Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, so sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen,” added Ariel. 

When these woods were logged in the 1960’s, trees were cut down all the way to river’s edge. Even the trees in the river were removed, leaving virtually no pools for coho salmon to rest and breed. Norman Cohen is interim director of conservation for the Nature Conservancy in Juneau. They help the Forest Service fund watershed restoration projects like this one.

“While the trees are growing back to, we want to try to make sure those habitat conditions are in place so that over the long-term the stream is resilient, the habitat is working, and the fish come back,” said Cohen. 

In a few weeks, phase one of the project will be complete, and the group will move on to phase two, when logs will be lowered into the river by helicopters.

Sounds of machinery fade in

A large piece of a log floats by, and and the Millers’ black lab, Trigger, bounds into the river, luckily catching it between his teeth. He drops it on the shoreline, and starts to dig in the sand.

Sound of dog digging in sand, whimpering, splashes of the logs

Trigger is already reaping rewards from the new watershed, and the team hopes the coho salmon fry will too. The Miller family, the Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy will be finished with this project soon. And instead of hearing this…

Sound of the machinery

Visitors to Kruzof Island will  hear this…

Sound of flowing water

Search Captain Lance Ewers says Sitka Mountain Rescue, police officers, and forest service personnel used  two boats for the response, in case one could not reach the island. The teen was stable but immobile and about half a mile from the shore near Brent’s Beach Cabin.

“When the first medical team got on scene and started providing comfort and care they realized real quickly they were going to need a lot more help with the litter wheel to get the patient back to the boat so that the boat could get them to the hospital,” Ewers said.

The extra boat turned out to be a good idea, Ewers says. Responders were able to ferry additional people from one of the boats to the beach to help with the gurney.

Ewers says the teen was on the island as part of Raven’s Way, a residential substance abuse treatment program, and had fallen into a ditch. The adults who were supervising the teen did the right thing by getting assistance, he says.

“Sometimes you hurt yourself and in Alaska if you hurt yourself and you’re not on the road system you got to call for help and these people did exactly that they called for help and we were able to help them,” Ewers said.

The girl was transported to Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital for treatment.

According to a Coast Guard statement, the skiff capsized after one of the two hunters stepped out onto shore. The second man was left in the water, and managed to climb on top of the overturned boat.

The skiff’s owner was in a second boat nearby and called the Coast Guard, which diverted a helicopter from Air Station Sitka that was already in the air on a routine training flight.

The two men were hoisted into the helicopter and flown safely back to Sitka, the Coast Guard said.

(U.S. Coast Guard video by Air Station Sitka)