Joel Kawahara’s fishing boat, the Karolee, traveled down the coast from Washington toward California waters, keeping a steady course that offered no hint that something had gone terribly wrong.
But when Coast Guard crews boarded the boat last week in Northern California, officials found no one on board. Its captain was nowhere to be seen. Somewhere along the roughly 400-mile trek, the 70-year-old Kawahara was lost.
“It’s a strange case,” said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier. “There were no signs of distress, no signs of debris.”
On the Karolee, the fishing gear was set up on the deck. A half-drunk cup of coffee was found sitting on the helm, and Kawahara’s oatmeal was left unfinished, as if the experienced fisherman suddenly disappeared in the middle of breakfast, said Heather Burns, a longtime friend.
His life jacket, she said, was found hanging in the boat.
Kawahara’s friends suspect “a freak occurrence” may have tossed him overboard somewhere out at sea.
The Karolee is towed by a U.S. Coast Guard crew from Station Humboldt Bay into Eureka on Aug. 14, after it was discovered that the owner of the boat was missing.
(Steven Strohmaier / U.S. Coast Guard Northwest District)
Born in Seattle, Kawahara was a professional fisherman who focused on salmon, albacore tuna and halibut. But friends and colleagues said Kawahara was a passionate advocate for fish and conservancy, fighting to maintain safe and healthy habitats for fish.
“He wasn’t there for anybody but the fish,” Burns said. “To him, everything tied back to salmon.”
Kawahara was a board member of Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, president of the Coastal Trollers Assn., and member of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.
Ken Kawahara, his brother, said he was always drawn toward fishing and the sea.
Their father owned a boat and a fishing tackle store in Seattle when they were growing up, and would spend some summers going out to do commercial fishing.
One of three brothers, Joel seemed to find a calling in fishing, Ken Kawahara said.
“My dad got the impression that Joel was not going to do anything else,” Kawahara said. “He just wanted to bum around and fish.”
At one point, Ken Kawahara said, their father sold their boat in the hope that Joel Kawahara did not spend all his time fishing.
His brother eventually went to college, earned a degree, and began to work for Boeing, Ken Kawahara said.
But he said Joel didn’t like his Boeing job, which dealt with military work that clashed with his personal philosophy. As soon as he was able to save up enough money, he bought a fishing boat. He quit his job. He returned to fishing.
“He just wanted to go back to fishing,” he said.
For years, friends and family said, Joel Kawahara worked doing what he loved, and earned the respect of colleagues along the West Coast and fishing grounds up to Alaska. When he went missing earlier this month, members of the commercial fishing community came together, hoping to find answers.
On social media, friends and colleagues looked for information on the Karolee, hoping he was still on board and something had just kept him from answering calls and messages.
The Coast Guard searched for more than 18 hours looking for signs of the missing man, the agency said in a statement, but suspended its search Aug. 13 after finding no trace of Kawahara.
Strohmaier said the Coast Guard would not be the agency to investigate how Kawahara went missing, and there’s no indication that another law enforcement agency is looking into the incident either.
Friends and members of the fishing community along the West Coast and in Alaska are mourning the loss of Kawahara, whom they described as an experienced, meticulous fisherman.
“He was one of the smartest people I ever met,” said Jeremy Brown, a fellow fisherman who knew Kawahara for 35 years. “He’s just incredibly open, lively and intellectually curious.”
Burns, who was taking care of Kawahara’s home and cats in Quilcene, Wash., while he was fishing, said she knew something had gone awry when on Monday, Aug. 11, she was unable to get ahold of Kawahara via text or his satellite phone.
The two didn’t have an official protocol for when he went fishing alone, she said, but would maintain contact every couple of days, she said.
Aug. 11 marked four days since she had heard from her friend, she said, and when she reached out to mutual acquaintances that weekend, she said, no one had heard from him for days.
That’s when she began to worry, Burns said.
Only small clues suggest what might have happened on board the Karolee, friends said.
Kawahara had planned to fish for tuna near Oregon, Brown said, and then planned to fish for salmon.
But according to the Coast Guard, the Karolee had maintained a constant southerly course for several days, keeping at four knots. The boat’s automatic identification system, according to the Coast Guard, was functioning and showed no signs that anything was wrong.
Brown said that steady course, however, is what alarmed friends and colleagues.
“Everything was consistent, except that the boat kept going and crossed the salmon grounds,” Brown said, indicating he never stopped to fish for salmon. “He didn’t call, he didn’t radio. When we looked at where his transponder was, he was already down in Oregon. At that point, it was obvious something was badly wrong.”
Coast Guard crews made several attempts to contact the Kawahara via radio calls to the Karolee and asked other ships and boats in the area to do the same, but no one received an answer, according to the agency.
On Aug. 12, a Coast Guard C-27 fixed-wing plane crew from Sacramento made visual contact with the Karolee, noticing that it had been rigged for fishing, the lights were on and a raft was on its cradle but officials said the crew “did not find any signs of distress.”
The ship continued on its course, and the Coast Guard dispatched an MH-60 helicopter from Air Station Astoria to search the area west of Grays Harbor, Wash., but made no findings.
Crews searched the boat’s path, officials said, with similar results.
On the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 13, the Coast Guard boarded the boat near Northern California and confirmed there was no one on board. Its safety equipment, officials noted, was still on board.
The same day, the Karolee was towed to Eureka, then docked in Humboldt Bay, according to the Coast Guard.
“Our crews diligently searched hundreds of miles,” said Cmdr. Chelsey Stroud, search-and-rescue mission coordinator for the Coast Guard’s Northwest District. “We send our deepest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of the missing man.”
The only clues as to what may have happened, Burns said, are the last messages Kawahara sent to friends the morning of Friday, Aug. 8, the day friends believe he may have somehow fallen overboard.
In a text message early that morning, Kawahara told Burns he had awakened to a foggy morning, and he was watching a group of murres, black and white sea birds, fishing near him.
“All of a sudden this whale comes up and boils the water less than 50 yards ahead of me,” Kawahara texted Burns just before 7:30 a.m. “I slowed down and turned but boy it was kind of close. The good news is lots to eat for whale and birds.”
A half-hour later, he texted another friend noting someone else was fishing near him.
Then nothing.
Something, Brown said, must have tossed Kawahara off his boat.
Fishing alone out at sea is not recommended, but Brown said it’s a common practice, especially among experienced fishermen.
“It must have been a really freak occurrence,” Brown said.
Friends and family say they will hold memorials to Kawahara in Quilcine and Seattle at some point.
“People dwell on the dangers, and yes, they’re there,” Brown said, adding that there are risks in a normal, daily car commute. “But compared to commuting on the freeway, I think we get the better part of the deal.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
