Search for missing boaters off B.C. suspended after body found, 2 still missing

The vessel, a four-and-a-half-metre Hewes craft registered in Washington state, was found overturned on a beach near Koitlah Point, west of Neah Bay, Wash. (Handout)

The search for three boaters who went missing in the waters between Washington state and Vancouver Island has been suspended after the body of a 64-year-old woman was recovered Thursday.

The United States Coast Guard says a 63-year-old man and a 69-year-old man are still missing.

All three boaters are family members from Washington state’s Snohomish County, the coast guard said in an update on the search effort Friday.

The agency had issued an alert to vessel operators in the area after the group failed to return to the dock in Neah Bay, Wash., approximately 20 kilometres southwest of Port Renfrew, B.C., on Wednesday night.

A massive search effort was launched before rescuers located the overdue vessel on Thursday afternoon but found no sign of its occupants.

The vessel, a four-and-a-half-metre Hewes craft registered in Washington state, was found overturned on a beach near Koitlah Point, west of Neah Bay.

“The decision to suspend the search pending new information is not an easy one,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark McDonell said in the statement.

“The U.S. Coast Guard is grateful for the support from our international, state, and tribal partners who also searched a significant amount of area near Neah Bay,” he added.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the missing boaters.”

Rescuers spent approximately 28 hours searching the seas and beaches covering 850 nautical square miles, the coast guard said.

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.

The local sheriff’s office is investigating the incident and will release the names of the missing and deceased at a later date, according to U.S. authorities.