Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard Seventeenth District

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News Release

Date: Jan. 6, 2009
Contact: Petty Officer Walter Shinn
Phone: 907-463-2068

Coast Guard searches for Tanner crab fisherman that fell into the Bering Sea

JUNEAU, Alaska - The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a 40-year old male that tangled his feet in a crab pot line and fell from the 90-foot fishing vessel Seabrooke approximately 22 miles northwest of Cold Bay, Alaska at 9:50 a.m.

Two Coast Guard rescue helicopters forward deployed in Cold Bay were launched. The MH-60 Jayhawk and H-65 Dolphin arrived on scene to begin the search at 11 a.m.  A Coast Guard C-130 was diverted from a patrol to assist with the search but is maintaining a high altittude orbit for communications coverage in the search area due to a low cloud ceiling and snow squalls.  All search aircraft are from Air Station Kodiak.

Coast Guard Communication Station Kodiak received the report via high frequency radio at 9:55 a.m.

There crew member that fell overboard was reportedly wearing orange rain gear.

Current weather conditions are 15 mph winds, with three to five foot seas, a water temperature of 34 and air temperature of 19.

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