Eleven-year-old Leonard Nowpakahok was aboard an 18-foot skin-covered whaling boat with five others on April 27, 2005, when the vessel capsized about five to seven miles off Gambell, Alaska, during a tow after harpooning a 44-foot bowhead whale. The crew included his uncle Jason Nowpakahok, the captain and Gambell’s mayor, and his 11-year-old cousin Yolanda Nowpakahok. Three crew members were rescued; one, James Uglowook, 20, died after resuscitation attempts. Leonard, Jason, and Yolanda were lost at sea despite aerial searches and a Coast Guard response.

The account notes the crew were not wearing flotation devices, a customary choice during hunts because life vests can impede the work. The capsizing devastated the tight-knit community of about 650 people on St. Lawrence Island, where whaling traditions and teaching children those skills are central to subsistence life.

Does anyone who was in Gambell in April 2005 or who has knowledge of that hunt have information about the search or what happened that night?