Coast Guard rescue crews have called off the search for a commercial fisherman who went missing after the fishing vessel MAVERICK sank off the coast of LaPush Friday morning, September 28, according to a Coast Guard spokesman.
A Coast Guard helicopter based at Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles on Ediz Hook conducted the last search of the missing man on Saturday, said Petty Officer Nathan Bradshaw, Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle.
Based on the circumstances of the sinking and the amount of time the missing man has been in the water, Coast Guard officials are considering the man deceased, Bradshaw said.
The Coast Guard has not released his name.
The missing man was one of four crew members on the 40-foot commercial fishing vessel MAVERICK, which sank early Friday morning following a collision with the 90-foot F/V VIKING STORM roughly 30 miles off the coast of LaPush. The VIKING STORM is based out of British Columbia. The collision occurred outside of U.S. territorial waters.
The crew aboard the 90-foot VIKING STORM was able to rescue three of the four crewmen of the MAVERICK.
A Coast Guard motor lifeboat transferred the three survivors, described as in good condition Saturday, from a Coast Guard cutter on the scene of the collision to the Coast Guard slip at the Quileute Harbor Marina in LaPush, Bradshaw said.
The owner of the MAVERICK, Port Angeles resident Darby Dickerson, was one of the three crewman who survived the collision, said Gene Harrison, the assistant harbor master at the Quileute Harbor Marina, where the survivors were dropped off by the Coast Guard at about 4 p.m. Friday.
Harrison’s brother-in-law also fished on the MAVERICK and was also returned safely to LaPush, Harrison said.
Harrison also knows the missing man, but would not confirm any more details about him until the Coast Guard releases his name.
Harrison was not familiar with the crew of the 90-foot F/V VIKING STORM involved in the collision or the boat itself.
No one aboard the VIKING STORM was injured and the vessel suffered only minor scrapes and a dent to its bow.
The Coast Guard is conducting an investigation, while a release from the Transportation Safety Board notes a Canadian team will also try to determine what caused the collision.
Sources: Jeremy Schwartz, Peninsula Daily News &
The Canadian Press
