Coast Guard suspends search for missing hunter near Newtok

The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday suspended the search for a missing seal hunter near Newtok after a nearly two-day effort.

Tom John, 59, left Newtok at about 10 a.m. Sunday riding a snowmachine and towing a red-and-yellow single-person kayak, Alaska State Troopers reported in an online dispatch identifying John.

Searchers found a snowmachine near local hunting grounds at about 12:30 p.m. Monday, but no other signs of John were found, according to the Coast Guard.

[Search on for seal hunter missing near Newtok]

The Coast Guard said multiple aircrews based out of Kodiak and volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol, along with troopers on the ground, took part in the search that lasted for more than 41 hours and stretched along the shoreline of Nunivak Island to northwest of Haven Bay.

Villagers from Newtok and nearby Tununak also pitched in, officials said.

Newtok officials could not be reached by phone, but a family member of John's said villagers were continuing the local search efforts.

"Coast Guard search and rescue crews covered more than 9,438 square nautical miles in their attempt to find the missing man," Petty Officer 1st Class Trevor Frommherz said in a statement calling off the search. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the missing man during this difficult time."

Newtok, population 372, is on the Ninglick River north of Nelson Island in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. It is 94 miles northwest of Bethel.