Outdoors/Adventure

Volunteers find body of crab fisherman missing near Whittier

Volunteers in the Prince William Sound town of Whittier found the body of a missing Anchorage boater Tuesday, according to the man's family.

Karl Stoltze was found tangled in lines attached to crab pots, a sister-in-law, Gretchen Wehmhoff, said in an email late Tuesday.

Stoltze, who was 53, set out Saturday morning in a 16-foot skiff to harvest crab in Prince William Sound, his family said. Amid blustery weather, he never returned, sparking an intense two-day search by the Coast Guard that turned up debris but no boat, nor Stoltze himself.

[Related: An Anchorage man went out into Prince William Sound to harvest crab for Easter. He's still missing.]

Wehmhoff said Stoltze's family was informed Tuesday afternoon by Whittier police that Stoltze's body had been found.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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