Zuckerberg spokesperson says his yacht did not hear call for maritime assist

The crew of a yacht owned by Mark Zuckerberg did not hear a radio call for a maritime assist from a small skiff that ran out of fuel off the coast of Alaska, and by the time it did, another nearby ship had already rendered assistance, a spokesperson for the Meta CEO said.

The Alaska Beacon reported that the skiff had issued a call for assistance through the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 3 and a nearby small cruise ship, the Wilderness Legacy, towed it into nearby Farragut Bay in Southeast Alaska and refueled it.

Every ship is obligated to respond to a distress call or request for assistance under maritime law unless doing so would put their own ship at risk.

Although it was closer, Zuckerberg's yacht, called Launchpad, had not responded to the call.

Maritime law expert Ian Ralby said he's seen ships abandon races they were training to compete in for years to go help another ship.

“Human beings are required to save the lives of other human beings if they can do so at sea. The whole point of this is that maritime issues are dangerous, being out at sea is dangerous, and we want to try to protect the lives of anybody who takes that risk no matter what they’re doing,” said Ralby, who is president of Auxilium Worldwide.

The incident started getting attention after a passenger on the cruise ship that did help posted about it on social media.

“I’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son,” Michael Love, a passenger who said he was on the Wilderness Legacy cruise ship, wrote on Bluesky on Aug. 5.

“Our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht — which was closer — and they repeatedly refused to respond. (There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this),” he said.

Zuckerberg's spokesperson Brian Baker told The Associated Press that the yacht's crew did not immediately hear the radio call.

”Mark and his family were not on board at the time of the incident," Baker said. "As the Coast Guard noted, the boat was not in distress, and by the time the crew reviewed the Coast Guard contact on a different radio channel from the one they were operating on, the assist was already underway. We’re grateful all parties are safe.”