3 boaters missing in U.S. waters south of Vancouver Island

The overdue vessel is a four-and-a-half-metre Hewes recreational boat registered in Washington state as WN 8608CZ. (U.S. Coast Guard)

The United States Coast Guard is asking vessel operators to be on the lookout for three boaters who are missing in the water between Washington state and Vancouver Island.

The group left Neah Bay, Wash., approximately 20 kilometres southwest of Port Renfrew, B.C., on Wednesday morning and were due to return later that evening, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Northwest division.

In an update Thursday afternoon, the agency said it had located the overdue vessel but there was no sign of the people on board.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the boat, a four-and-a-half-metre Hewes recreational craft registered in Washington state as WN 8608CZ, was found near Koitlah Point, west of Neah Bay.

“Coast guard crews are actively searching the area with assistance from local agencies,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement on social media, adding the partner agencies included the Washington State Patrol, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Makah Trial Police.

Open-source vessel tracking websites showed multiple rescue vessels in the water off Neah Bay on Thursday morning, including a Canadian Coast Guard research ship.

The ship, CCGS Vector, was transiting the area from North Saanich to Bamfield, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, when it appeared to double back abruptly. The data show the vessel spent the next four hours off Neah Bay, moving in a zig-zag pattern consistent with an open-water search.

Canadian Coast Guard spokesperson Anna Muselius declined to comment on the search effort Thursday morning, referring questions about the incident to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

Pedram Mohyeddin, a spokesperson for the JRCC and Maritime Forces Pacific, confirmed the Canadian research vessel’s involvement in the search, saying the co-ordination centre received a call from U.S. authorities early Thursday morning, requesting assistance from CCGS Vector, which was already in the area.

“After approximately four hours, the CCGS Vector was stood down at the request of the USCG,” Mohyeddin wrote in an emailed statement.