The last fishing voyage
Whitefish grad missing in Alaska
Ben Symmes wasn't finished fishing yet.
The 31-year-old Bozeman resident and his father, Tom, of Kalispell, had spent most of the summer fishing for salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Tom Symmes has a partner and a fishing boat and often fishes in the summers. Ben has accompanied him for nine years.
When his dad wanted to head home to Montana, Ben wanted to stay longer. He found a boat headed for Togiak Bay and extended his fishing trip.
On Friday, Ben disappeared.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, Ben Symmes was last seen between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday. He is believed to have fallen overboard. On Saturday, after more than 16 hours searching land and sea for Symmes, the Coast Guard suspended the search.
"I don't know the details," Tom Symmes said Tuesday. "There are none."
He said his son began fishing with him when Ben was about 15 or 16 years old. Ben had several other jobs, including fighting wildland fire with a hotshot crew in Prineville, Ore., but he always returned to fishing.
Ben graduated from Whitefish High School in 1996. He attended the University of Montana and Flathead Valley Community College, where he earned an associate's degree. For a while he attended Montana Tech in Butte and last fall, he started school at Montana State University to pursue a degree in chemical engineering.
Ben didn't finish the semester; he dropped out to work as a carpenter in the Big Sky area. He planned to return to Montana State this fall.
When his father was ready to return to Montana this summer, Ben found work as a deck hand on Nick Mavar's 32-foot gill netter, the Miss Colleen.
The Miss Colleen radioed the Coast Guard at 9:46 p.m. Friday. A Coast Guard helicopter and a fixed-wing plane from Air Station Kodiak flew to the bay Friday night to join the crew of Miss Colleen, which is based out of Anacortes, Wash., and about 10 good Samaritan vessels, in an overnight search for Symmes.
Alaska state troopers were notified of the search at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The troopers said that Symmes was the sole deck hand aboard the vessel and that Mavar didn't realize when Symmes fell overboard.
Symmes was not wearing a personal flotation device, according to the troopers. He reportedly was wearing orange rain gear.
The Coast Guard said it resumed the search for Symmes at 8 a.m. Saturday but suspended it at 5:20 p.m. The search lasted about 16 hours and covered more than 300 square miles, according to a Coast Guard press release.
Crews conducted a shoreline search in addition to searching the surrounding waters, the Coast Guard said. Weather in the area on Saturday was mostly cloudy, and the air and sea temperatures were both about 50 degrees.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Charly Hengen said Saturday night that she didn't know if or when the search would resume. Tom Symmes said the official search is over.
"After the Coast Guard suspends operations, nothing more is done that is organized," he said. "There will be people on the watch for Ben, but it is a very remote area."
Symmes' sister, Arrie, lives in Okinawa, Japan, with her husband, Josh, a pilot with the U.S. Air Force. His mother lives in Sandpoint, Idaho.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com