a day ago
Family continues search for kayak fisherman missing in ocean off Kenai Peninsula
Jun. 13—Officials with the U.S. Coast Guard said Friday they have suspended the search for a fisherman missing off the Kenai Peninsula since Wednesday.
But friends and family of David Meyer are still hoping to find him, his daughter said Friday afternoon.
"We're continuing the search," Chantrelle Meyer said. "We absolutely are not going to give up on finding him."
The 62-year-old from Happy Valley, just south of Ninilchik, went out fishing Wednesday in his kayak, Chantrelle Meyer said. A friend saw him paddle about three miles out, but called the Coast Guard when it appeared the kayak was drifting south, she said. Authorities said a good Samaritan found the empty boat Wednesday evening.
The Alaska State Troopers conducted an initial search, according to a spokesman. Troopers notified Coast Guard watchstanders of an overdue kayaker approximately 10 nautical miles north of Anchor Point around 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Lexie O'Brien.
David Meyer was reported to be wearing gray fishing bibs and a dark-colored personal floatation device, O'Brien said.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Kodiak arrived at approximately 9:30 p.m. to search the area, O'Brien said. A private citizen on shore also launched a boat and found the overturned kayak with no one visible, she wrote in an email. That boater began searching the area with multiple other volunteer boats, O'Brien said.
The Coast Guard suspended the search Thursday after 19 hours and covering just over 360 square nautical miles, she said.
Meyer said on Friday numerous people continued the search on their own time and funding, and there remained a need for search parties along Cook Inlet beaches from Clam Gulch and Kasilof to Homer.
Along with water searches, she said there are pilots flying the area as well as people combing the beaches on side-by-sides.
"This is urgent. We are terrified and need help from the community," Meyer wrote in a social media post Friday.
She asked anyone who finds anything that could help with the search, or has any information, to call the Coast Guard at 907-428-4100.
