Names of Two Guides involved in Chichagof Island Bear Maulings Released

A Sitka Air Station MH-60 Jayhawk hoisted the two guides and transferred them to medical personnel in Sitka. Image-USCG
A Sitka Air Station MH-60 Jayhawk crew hoisted the two guides and transferred them to medical personnel in Sitka. Image-USCG

The identities of the two tour guides with UnCruise Adventures, who were mauled by a Brown Bear sow while guiding 22 tourists from the cruise ship Wilderness Explorer have been released by authorities on Monday.

Alaska State Troopers identified the two tour guides as 41-year-old Anna Powers of Hawaii and 26-year-old Michael Justa of Juneau. The tour group encountered the sow and her cub while on the Sitkoh Creek Trail 20 miles north of Sitka on Chichagof Island on Thursday.

Powers was mauled after the tour group got in between the sow and her cub. Justa was mauled after he deployed bear spray at the sow.

Jayhawk crew in middle of hoist of one of the victims. Image-USCG
Jayhawk crew in middle of hoist of one of the victims. Image-USCG

The incident was called in to the Coast Guard at 12:48 on VHF channel 16 by the cruise vessel reporting the two with “multiple injuries and severe lacerations.”

A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60 Jayhawk crew was dispatched to the scene and hoisted both Powers and Justa before transferring them to medical personnel waiting in Sitka.

Powers, who suffered worse injuries in the encounter, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries. She has since been removed from the Intensive Care Unit and is now listed in “satisfactory” condition. Justa was treated and released from the hospital in Juneau.    

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