Three commercial fishermen operating out of Bodega Bay were rescued Monday from the ocean near the mouth of the Russian River after their boat struck a rock, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard received a distress call from the boat’s captain shortly after 6 a.m., said Petty Officer Steven McDougal.

The 40-foot vessel, the Robert Croll, was taking on more water than it could bail after striking a rock near Sunken Reef, about two miles north of the Russian River.

The boat was submerged by the time the Coast Guard arrived and the three men were floating in a life raft about 500 yards from shore, McDougal said.

The Coast Guard found the men in the foggy, early morning light less than an hour after the call came in by tracking the signal of an emergency response beacon on the boat and the flame of a red parachute flare. 

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