Two crew members were rescued from the lifeboat of a 130-foot crab boat that sank 170 miles southwest of Kodiak, but the search for five other missing crew was suspended after no sign of them was found by the U.S. Coast Guard over a 1,400-square-mile area.
Coast Guard officials announced an end to the search on New Year’s Day at Kodiak, some 20 hours after receiving a mayday call via high frequency radio from the F/V Scandies Rose, which capsized the previous night and sank some five miles southeast of Sutwik Island.
The Coast Guard on Jan. 2 identified the two survivors as Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler, and the missing as Gary Cobban Jr., master, and his son, David Lee Cobban, both of Kodiak; Arthur Ganacias, Brock Rainey and Seth Rousseau-Gano. The Seattle Times identified Lawler as a resident of Alaska and Gribble ss a Washington state resident, Rainey as a resident of Idaho and Ganacias and Rousseau-Gano as residents of Washington state.
“The decision to suspend an active search and rescue case is never easy, and it’s only made after careful consideration of a myriad of factors,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Bell, 17th District Commander. “Our deepest condolences to the friends and families impacted by this tragedy.”
The Coast Guard said the decision to suspend the active search came after exhausting all leads and careful consideration of survival probability.
Weather conditions were reported to be winds exceeding 40 miles an hour, 15-to-20-foot seas and blowing snow.
The search involved four MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews and two HC-130 Hercules airplane crews launched from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak. The Jayhawk helicopter crew arriving on scene were able to rescue Gribble and Lawler, both wearing survival suits, from a life raft. They were taken to the hospital in Kodiak, where they were reported to be in stable condition.
The Dutch Harbor based vessel was owned by Scandies Rose Ventures LLC and managed by Mattsen Management LLC of Seattle.
The vessel operated in the Bering Sea crab and Pacific cod fisheries, and also tendered salmon and herring. According to the LinkedIn page of managing partner Dan Mattsen, the Scandies Rose also fished its own Bering Sea crab quota share and leased quota shares from others to maximize yields to partners of the Scandies Rose Fishing Co.
According to the ship’s website, the vessel was built in 1978 by Bender Shipbuilding in Mobile, Alabama to provide commercial fishing services to a number of seafood companies.
