Tag Archives: in Nakwasina Sound
‘A friend to everybody’: Sitka man killed in bear mauling remembered by colleagues
Tad Fujioka was an avid outdoorsman whose love of fishing led him to trade the engineering field for the commercial trolling one. But Fujioka, whose body was found Wednesday north of Sitka following search and rescue efforts, the victim of a bear mauling, is being remembered less for what he did and more for the type of person he was. “I mean, everybody that knew him, liked him,” said longtime friend and colleague, Norman Pillen, president of Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC) in Sitka. Fujioka was the board chair for SPC and a big advocate for the commercial fishing industry. He was a strong family man and man of many talents, Pillen said. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:04
A major fisheries advocate, Sitkan Tad Fujioka found dead in apparent bear mauling
The call that Tad Fujioka was overdue could not have come at a worse time. On the evening of October 29, Sitka and the outer coast of Southeast were being lashed by a windstorm, with some gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour. Fire Chief Craig Warren says Air Station Sitka launched a helicopter, nevertheless, equipped with Forward-Looking-Infrared (FLIR), to search an area about ten miles north of Sitka in Nakwasina Sound. Fujioka was believed to be returning to an area where he had shot a deer on Monday in much better weather and had cached part of the carcass. The shock reverberated quickly around Sitka. Norm Pillen is the President of Seafood Producers Cooperative, where Fujioka was board chair. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 11:47
