Arthur Ganacias Missing Person Case

Jan 07, 2020

May 06, 2024

Arthur

Ganacias

54

50

68 inches

145 lbs

Asian

Male

On the frigid night of December 31, 2019, the F/V Scandies Rose, a 130-foot crab fishing vessel, was navigating the treacherous waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Among the seven crew members on board was 50-year-old Arthur Ganacias, a seasoned engineer with extensive experience in the demanding world of commercial fishing. The vessel departed Kodiak, Alaska, on a journey to the Bering Sea fishing grounds, a routine trip that would soon turn into a tragedy. As the Scandies Rose passed near Sutwik Island, it encountered a severe storm with winds gusting up to 45 knots and seas swelling to 20 feet, accompanied by heavy freezing spray. These perilous conditions caused a rapid and severe accumulation of ice on the vessel, leading to a dangerous list to its starboard side. At approximately 10:00 p.m., the captain, Gary Cobban Jr., made a distress call, his final words over the radio being the chilling message, "We are rolling over." The United States Coast Guard immediately launched a massive search and rescue operation in a desperate attempt to find the seven crew members of the Scandies Rose. The effort involved multiple helicopter and airplane crews, as well as the Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, covering an extensive search area of approximately 1,400 square miles. In the early hours of New Year's Day, two crew members, Dean Gribble Jr. and John Lawler, were miraculously found and rescued from a life raft. They were suffering from hypothermia but otherwise had no serious injuries. The two survivors recounted the harrowing final moments of the Scandies Rose, describing how the vessel capsized and sank within minutes, trapping the remaining five crew members inside. The extensive search for Arthur Ganacias, Captain Gary Cobban Jr., his son David Cobban, Brock Rainey, and Seth Rousseau-Gano continued for over 20 hours in the unforgiving Alaskan waters. Despite the exhaustive efforts of the search and rescue teams, no other survivors were found, and the search was eventually suspended. Subsequent investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Coast Guard sought to understand the cause of the tragic sinking. The NTSB concluded that the probable cause was a combination of inaccurate stability instructions for the vessel and the heavy, asymmetric accumulation of ice due to weather conditions that were more severe than forecasted. The investigation found that the vessel's stability instructions did not adequately account for the significant weight of ice that could accumulate on the crab pots and the vessel itself, which raised the center of gravity and drastically reduced its stability. The tragic loss of the Scandies Rose and its five crew members, including Arthur Ganacias, serves as a solemn reminder of the inherent dangers of commercial fishing in the unforgiving Alaskan waters. The incident prompted a series of safety recommendations aimed at improving vessel stability instructions, weather forecasting, and the use of personal locator beacons to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Although debris from the vessel has occasionally washed ashore, the five men were never recovered and are presumed to have been lost at sea.

Dec 31, 2019

Kodiak

Alaska

Kodiak Island Borough

No

70660

Alaska State Troopers

Anchorage

Alaska

Anchorage Borough

99507

Malia Miller

Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager

5700 East Tudor Road, Alaska

9072695511

State

Law Enforcement

AK20000206

2019-12-31

Alaska State Troopers

7673

Brown

Brown

Brown

07/01/2026