Joshua B. Nove, 23, vanished on July 3, 1997, while working as a volunteer intern for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. A recent magna cum laude graduate from Amherst College with a biology degree, he was banding birds near Mother Goose Lake when he entered shallow marsh water to catch two mew gull chicks. Wearing green khaki pants, a light-colored t-shirt and hip waders, he stepped where the lake floor dropped off suddenly; water flooded his waders and he was pulled under out of sight.

Colleagues launched an immediate boat and foot search and Alaska State Troopers and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dive team joined, but divers could not see because the lake water was laden with glacial silt. Rescue teams were unable to recover him. The official circumstances point to a presumed drowning; his body was not recovered, and his family—his mother, father and grandmother—were left without a final farewell.

Joshua had travelled widely to study birds, including fieldwork in Belize and across the United States. His disappearance is a stark reminder of the dangers of remote fieldwork in unpredictable conditions. If anyone was at Mother Goose Lake that day or has information about the search, please share what is known.