Let’s face it, commercial fishermen and those associated with the industry are a family, and we all feel it when we lose someone, especially the young who are our future.
It would be hard to find any of us who haven’t been touched, at least indirectly, by tragedy, and we all have stories of close calls. But some of us don’t escape the freak accidents, the fleeting moment of being in the wrong place at the wrong time when things go awry and people die.
As Buck Laukitis, owner of the F/V Halcyon, tells it, such was the case when Baxter Cox, a 27-year-old crewman on his boat, got hit in the head while hauling cod pots and died on Sept. 3. “I’d give anything to have Baxter back,” says Laukitis.
Laukitis doesn’t want to speculate on exactly what happened. He is waiting for the official report on the accident. “The thing is that you can’t really blame it on anything. The weather was fine, the gear was all in order, and the crew was well rested. They’re all well trained, they all passed their drug tests, and Baxter has been with us for almost three years. He’s hauled thousands of pots. If anything, they were maybe too familiar with what they were doing.”
The Halcyon was fishing 120 pots in federal waters off Akutan with the captain, four deckhands, and a federal observer. “You pretty much stay on the gear,” says Laukitis. “You can haul a pot every six hours or so, maybe you haul 150 to 200 a day. You work the tides. A lot of times the buoys are down, so you put a guy on watch, and everyone gets some sleep.”
It’s a pretty routine fishery, especially in good weather. “I always thought these tragedies happened on other boats, not one of ours,” says Laukitis. “I flew out to Dutch as soon as I heard. I talked to the guys. They wanted to keep fishing. In this industry we know this can happen. We carry on as best we can.”
Laukitis adds that Cox’s family and loved ones are in mourning, as are many friends and followers, everyone in the industry can feel this.
He has a big social media presence with thousands of followers on Instagram and other platforms,” says Laukitis. “He was always promoting the industry with photos and videos, always advancing his career. He was the kind of person we need in this industry.” Laukitis says he believes more will be done to honor Baxter Cox’s dedication to the Alaska fishing industry.
It’s hard to close a story like this, except to extend our sympathy to Baxter Cox’s family, loved ones, and friends, and express our own sorrow that we have lost one of our own from the extended family of fishermen and the fishing industry. He was a good one.
