The Coast Guard suspended its search for a fisherman missing after a 40-foot vessel capsized near Newport, Ore., after the captain and two crew members were rescued Sunday.
The Newport-based crab boat Das Bug was heading to Yaquina Bay when watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Columbia River received a report of the capsizing around 4 p.m.
Two 47-foot motor lifeboats from Station Yaquina Bay responded, rescuing the crew of three who were treated for hypothermia, according to a Coast Guard account of the accident.
One man remained missing and Coast Guard helicopter air crews joined the search Sunday into Monday morning. The search covered a 54 square miles, but turned up no sign of the missing man, in conditions of 7-foot swells and 13-knot winds.
“Suspending a search without finding the person you have been looking for is always one of the most difficult decisions we have to make,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cdr. Jacqueline Hunnicutt, search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Sector Columbia River.
Das Bug captain Perry Bordeaux told the Lincoln Chronicle he was one to two miles offshore approaching the Yaquina Bay bar when the capsize happened.
“It happened insanely fast,” Bordeaux told the Chronicle. “We are talking maybe 30 seconds between knowing there was an issue and the boat being gone.”
