142 Whale Hunters Rescued From Ice

Rescue crews plucked 142 whale hunters from the Arctic Sea ice off northern Alaska early Sunday after the ice cracked and sent them drifting out to sea.

The whalers used marine radios to notify search and rescue teams, which launched two helicopters to ferry the group back to town. The rescue took more than seven hours and was complicated by fog.

The whalers used hand-held global positioning systems to guide the rescuers to them.

The 20-mile-long break off Barrow, the state’s most northern point, occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday. By 5:30 a.m. Sunday, all of the whalers had been rescued. Some of them had drifted seven miles from shore.

“They were pretty calm,” said Randy Crosby, deputy director of the North Slope borough Search and Rescue department. Crosby estimated that the whalers left behind about two dozen boats, up to 80 snowmobiles and “lots of sleds and tents and camping equipment.”