One person has been found dead and four others are still missing after a boat failed to return following a day trip off the coast of California.
The US Coast Guard revealed it was discontinuing the search off the coast of Bodega Bay for the remaining four “pending the development of new information” at 6:30pm on Sunday, it revealed in a press release on Monday.
An 11-year-old boy was found alive off South Salmon Creek beach at around 8am on Sunday morning after the vessel capsized on Saturday, wrote The New York Times.
He was taken to hospital and was in a stable condition, the outlet added.
The dead body of a second teenager was recovered approximately two hours later, officials said.
Authorities did not reveal whether the body was that of the 14-year-old or the 17-year-old.
On Saturday at 11:40pm, Coast Guards received an alert from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office concerning “six overdue boaters aboard a 21-foot blue and white vessel” who had left Westside Marina at around 3pm that day and were due to return by 7pm.
On board the vessel were three adults and three teenagers reportedly aged 11, 14 and 17, Levi Read, chief petty officer with U.S. Coast Guard District 11 said, as per The New York Times.
Read added that the group was from Corning, California, and five of the people on board were believed to be related, though their relationship was not disclosed by authorities. One person on board was reportedly a family friend, Read said.
The group had been out crabbing off the coast of Bodega when a cell phone ping indicated the vessels’ whereabouts as being near Carmet Beach.
Those on board were last heard from at about 3pm, said Sonoma deputies.
A search force encompassing Resident Coast Deputies, the Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit, Henry One, the Sheriff’s Office Drone team, the Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team, Sonoma County Fire, Coast Guard boats, as well as helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and State Parks joined forces to locate the overboard passengers.
Air support from the US Air Force joined in with the search effort a short time later, officials said.
However, after an extensive 57-hour combined search which scanned over 2,100 square miles, the Coast Guard decided to halt the rescue mission.
U.S. Coast Guard CWO Michael L. Zapawa, search and rescue coordinator for San Francisco said: “The decision to suspend a search is always difficult to make and never done lightly.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the missing boaters during this incredibly difficult time."
Coast Guard officials urged all mariners to be equipped with a float plan, a working VHF radio, and to always check weather conditions before heading out.
