Search continues for respected North Slope scientist who was swept under logjam

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Dr. Craig George, 70, Utqiagvik, a respected scientist who’s work listening and watching people and animals in their natural environment touched lives across Alaska, has been missing since Wednesday when the raft he was on overturned in the Chulitna River near Cantwell, Alaska State Troopers said.

“George’s body has not been recovered,” said AST Communications Director Austin McDaniel. “High water on Friday prevented the dive team from deploying specialized tools in the search for George.”

Five people had been on two rafts during the incidence when the one with George had overturned, AST said. The others were not injured. They were all wearing life jackets.

Dr. George is known for his work with whales,” North Slope Borough spokesperson D.J. Fauske said in a Facebook post Saturday.

“I first met Craig as a 1st grader at the original Ipalook Elementary,” wrote Fauske in a Facebook page. “He played his original version of the now classic, “Keep on Whaling.” He sang some other songs he wrote too. He gave us copies of his late mothers amazing children’s books. Those interactions with him over the years stuck with me for all my life. He was kind, gentle, humble, funny, and could teach you something without you even knowing you were in the middle of an academic lesson.”

Dr. George helped preserve and protect an Inupiat culture that was “judged and stereotyped for years by outsiders,” Fauske wrote.

“He helped combine thousands of years of traditional local Inupiat knowledge with world class technology and data. He was the first to publish how long whales could live and worked with men like the late Harry Brower Sr. to learn where they had their calves.”

Copyright 2023 KTUU. All rights reserved.