Four people were rescued Sunday after drifting for days in Bristol Bay.

Four men departed Platinum Friday on a 23 mile trip to Bird Rock to subsistence pick eggs on the island. Their trip took an unexpected turn as the wind came up and they sought shelter in the ice floe.

Later that day, when the men hadn’t returned in their 18 foot skiff, the Alaska State Troopers contacted the United States Coast Guard for assistance in locating the overrdue mariners.

But, before search and rescue efforts could begin with the Coast Guard, the troopers reported that the men had returned and the search was called off. The troopers, according to reports, had misidentified the skiff with another identical skiff with four members aboard.

Again on Sunday, the troopers were informed that the four men and the skiff were still missing and a HC-130 Hercules was launched out of Air Station Kodiak to search for the four unlucky boaters.

Sunday, at 9:45 am, the boaters were located 173 miles from their starting point in Platinum. When found, they were still within the ice floe that they had tucked into to avoid the weather. While in the floe, the skiff had run out of gas.

“The vessel’s crew ducked into an ice floe to avoid a storm and has been drifting with the ice since,” said Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey Roberto, a search and rescue controller with the District 17 command center in Juneau. “The crew had supplies with them for a day trip but we recommend mariners take enough supplies with them for multiple days at a time because anything can happen in Alaska’s extreme environment.”

After the Hercules located the missing vessel, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was launched from Airt Station Kodiak to a point 23 miles northwest of Port Heiden on the Alaska Peninsula. The Jayhawk hoisted the four men from the skiff and transported them to Dillingham to be evaluated by medical personnel.