Update 7:00 p.m.: Locals have pulled the whale from the Kuskokwim River onto the Napaskiak shore.
Original story 6:00 p.m.:
Locals continue working to drag the carcass of a large whale out of the Kuskokwim River. A team of boats outside of Napaskiak is still struggling to drag the sunken whale to shore. According to Napaskiak Tribal Administrator Sharon Williams, Joe Evon of Search and Rescue was able to hook the whale and drag it 20 feet this morning before the rope he was using snapped in two.
The team needs more horsepower to drag the carcass from the river. Evon said that he and other volunteers are also welding even bigger hooks. The team worked until after midnight last night and started working again early this morning. In an interview this morning, Evon said that he is “tired with a headache,” but that “nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it." In a call 20 minutes ago he added that he is happy the whale is out of his hands.
The men and women who killed the whale with guns and seal harpoons reportedly included people from Bethel, possibly Oscarville, and Napaskiak, and they are not necessarily the same people who are trying to retrieve the whale’s carcass now.
“I feel for these boys,” Evon said of the volunteers that he’s working with. “They’re stepping up and taking responsibility where nobody will. We’re stepping up to do what we can.” Evon added that "everybody that participated in taking that animal’s life should be out there helping us.”