JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska is searching for a fishing boat with six people that has been missing in the Bering Sea for more than a day.
Ships and aircraft have looked through the night for the 98-foot-long F/V Destination, according to a news release from the agency on Sunday afternoon. The boat had six people on it and is owned by a company based in Seattle, Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson said.
Brent Paine, executive director of the Seattle-based United Catcher Boats, said there are two vessels that fish off Alaska called the F/V Destination.
One of them is a trawler that belongs to his association, and is not the one that went missing. Paine said the other vessel – the target of the Coast Guard search – is a smaller vessel that has harvested crab. That vessel but it had been moored in Sand Point, Alaska, he said.
Paine said he does not know anyone on the boat.
The vessel’s electronic locating device was recovered Saturday morning in a debris field containing buoys, a life ring and an oil sheen.
The Coast Guard doesn’t yet know the cause of the boat’s disappearance or whether anyone survived, Steenson said.
Coast Guard crews helping in the search include two HC-130 Hercules airplane crews, two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau, the agency said.
People on the small island of St. George are looking along the shore for any signs of the crew. The Coast Guard didn’t say how many members were aboard or immediately respond to a call seeking more information.
The agency says the water temperature is 38 degrees.
