Hunting boats find stranded pair 15 miles offshore near Kotzebue

Two adults stranded in open water near Coffee Point, their boat taking on water and dead in the water with a failed battery, were found and brought safely to Kotzebue early Wednesday morning by hunting vessels that reached them before the formal rescue boat arrived.

Alaska State Troopers received the distress call at 10:43 p.m. Tuesday. The two were roughly 15 to 20 miles offshore with no propulsion and no working bilge. Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue launched a boat from Kotzebue at midnight. Two hunting vessels already working the area located the stranded party first. Everyone was back in Kotzebue by 5:15 a.m. with no injuries reported, according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety dispatch.

In remote Northwest Arctic waters, hunters and other local mariners are often the first layer of response, already on the water when a distress call goes out, covering ground that formal responders must travel to reach.