Westport feeling deep loss after fishing tragedy
“You couldn’t get those two boys to sit still for too long, they were real adventurers,” Cole Rutzer, a 22-year-old Westport man whose body was found July 3 on the beach of a remote island near Kodiak Island, Alaska. He and his longtime friend and fishing boat crewmate Dylan Furford had taken a skiff from the larger boat to explore the island. Furford is missing and the Coast Guard has suspended its search. The two were part of a four-man crew on the Westport-based Pacific Dynasty, fishing for Dungeness crab. Rutzer’s dad, Greg, is the captain and his cousin, Brent Gilbertson, was the other crew member. The boat had dropped crab pots and had some down time so Cole Rutzer and Furford, also in his early 20s, had gone to Tugidak Island, taking Trigger, Cole’s dog. >click to read< 08:07
Prayers and strength to the families. As the mother of commercial crab and tuna fisherman/woman it is the unspoken fear every time they untie from dock.God bless you all.