A search is under way for a crewman reported overboard near an island south of Kodiak while crab fishing Thursday, on the same morning that the U.S. Coast Guard rescued another fishing vessel’s crew from the island after their vessel hit a rock.
Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley says Anchorage watchstanders were notified of the man overboard at about 10:50 a.m. by the crew of the Flying Ocean, about 30 miles northwest of Sitkinak Island.
The Coast Guard cutter Hickory is searching the fisherman’s last known position, with support from an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and an HC-130 Hercules search aircraft.
“We have dispatched multiple units to the area to search for the missing fisherman,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Victor Santos, a Coast Guard Sector Anchorage watchstander. “Our units on scene have deployed data marker buoys to help us determine the best search area.”
The Coast Guard says weather in the search area is reported to include 20 mph winds and 6-foot seas.
Shortly after midnight Thursday, five crew members of the fishing vessel Kodiak Isle radioed the Coast Guard for help when it hit a rock and began taking on water. The crew donned survival suits and got into a life raft which drifted ashore on Sitkinak Island, before a Jayhawk sent to the area rescued them at about 2 a.m.
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