A 15-year-old boy from Savoonga, Alaska, has survived 62 hours stranded at sea on an overturned fishing boat, during which his older brother and cousin both drowned in the freezing Bering Sea. His family has since revealed harrowing details, including that Derek Parker Aghnaanga tried desperately to hold onto the bodies of his relatives before they slipped away, and that he credits his survival to prayer during the ordeal.

The incident began on 4 September when Aghnaanga set out from Savoonga with his brother, Sidney Kulowiyi, 35, and cousin, Barton Rookok, 34, to fish for halibut near St Lawrence Island. The skiff capsized after a fishing line reportedly became tangled in the motor; Kulowiyi, who was captaining the vessel, became trapped beneath it and drowned, while Rookok survived alongside his cousin for roughly a day before becoming distressed and also dying in the water. Aghnaanga was eventually found alone, kneeling on the hull and showing signs of hypothermia, after the boat drifted for days towards the Russian border; he was rescued by the crew of a fishing vessel, the Northwest Explorer.