Coast Guard responding to unmanned fishing vessel underway off California coast

DATE: November 03, 2009 18:21:27 PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

		Eleventh Coast Guard District
NEWS RELEASE	DATE: CONTACT:	Nov. 3, 2009 Public Affairs (510) 772-8865
Coast Guard responding to unmanned fishing vessel underway off California coast
MORRO BAY, Calif. – The Coast Guard is responding to a fishing vessel believed to be sailing with no one aboard approximately 130 miles southwest of San Francisco. Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach received a report at about 11:35 a.m. from a good Samaritan of a body entangled in crab fishing equipment. The equipment was identified as being from the fishing vessel Axel, a 39-foot vessel from Morro Bay. A crew from Coast Guard Station Morro Bay launched aboard a unit smallboat along with investigators from San Luis Obispo Sherriff's Department and later recovered the body. A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Sacramento, and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station San Francisco, have been launched to try and determine if anyone else is aboard the fising vessel. The Coast Guard Cutter Tern, an 87-foot patrol boat homeported at Yerba Buena Island, is also enroute to the boat. The Axel reportedly had only one person aboard at the time of the incident. ###