The body of a prominent wildlife biologist lost in a rafting accident on the Chulitna River on July 5 has been recovered.
According to an Alaska State Troopers online dispatch, a group rafting the Chulitna on Sunday found the body of 70-year-old John “Craig” George of Utqiagvik. His remains were found about 7.5 air miles downriver from the original search location south of Cantwell, where George had been traveling with companions in two rafts when one of them overturned.
The Alaska Beacon reported that George had retired as a senior biologist from the North Slope Borough, where he spent decades studying both bowhead whales and the impacts of reduced sea ice on Alaska’s Arctic coast. He was an acclaimed musician in Utqiagvik, and helped to complete an unfinished book by his mother – Newbery Award-winning author Jean Craighead George – after her death.
Troopers say a helicopter transported George’s remains to Fairbanks, and that his next of kin was notified.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
