Capsized Boat: Search Resumes for Fourth Body off California Coast - East Idaho News
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Capsized Boat: Search Resumes for Fourth Body off California Coast

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GETTY N 031212 USCG?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1331562634336iStockphoto/Thinkstock(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — The Coast Guard has recovered the bodies of three men whose boat apparently capsized during a daylong fishing trip off the coast of southern California. They are still trying to retrieve the body of a fourth man.

The bodies were found by Coast Guard helicopters Sunday floating near a capsized boat off Santa Cruz Island, near Santa Barbara.  Coast Guard authorities said the boat was spotted about 20 miles away from the Channel Islands Harbor where the men had left for their trip Saturday morning.

One body was still on the boat, two others were floating nearby in the water.  Those bodies were recovered.

A fourth body was spotted five miles from the boat, but nightfall and choppy waves forced the Coast Guard to end its effort Sunday night.  The effort to retrieve the body will resume on Monday.

The men’s identities have not been released.

Coast Guard Lt. George Kolumbic said a search was launched after a relative of one of the men reported that they had failed to return from their fishing trip aboard the 24-foot boat.

It was the second Coast Guard search this weekend to end badly.  A search off the coast of Washington state for four men whose commercial ship suddenly disappeared without even a Mayday distress call was ended Sunday.

The Coast Guard said the four men are presumed dead given the length of time they’ve been missing and the temperature of the water, said to be around 40 degrees.

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