NEAH BAY — The U.S. Coast Guard stopped searching Wednesday afternoon for two Canadian men missing after their commercial fishing boat capsized off Cape Flattery the day before.
The decision to abandon rescue efforts for Kelly Broderick, 49, and Miles Anderson, 42, was made after considering eyewitness accounts from two survivors of the incident and the chilly temperature of the water.
“It’s gone well beyond the survival time for the temperature,” said Petty Officer 1st Class David Foucault at Coast Guard District 13 headquarters out of Seattle.
He said the search was suspended about 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The 31-year-old skipper, Wade Mathison, of the 76-foot Ocean Tor of Ucluelet, British Columbia, and a Canadian fisheries observer, Reginald Wescott, 33, were rescued from the scene.
The two men said they last saw Broderick and Anderson in the water, and that neither man was wearing a survival suit.
Their hometowns were not available, Petty Officer Kurt Frederickson said.
The temperature of the water is about 59 degrees, which would allow a human without a survival suit about 6½ hours to find dry land, Coast Guard Lt. Matthew Michaelis said.
Cause of the capsizing is under investigation, but officials said the Ocean Tor took some waves over the stern, allowing water to pour through an open port into a fish hold.
‘He was really, really cold’
Chief Petty Officer Shawn Mogen was the rescue swimmer aboard a Port Angeles-based Dolphin helicopter that responded to the scene.
Upon arriving, Mogen found Mathison clinging to the hull of the upside-down boat.
Waves were breaking over the hull, and Mathison was only wearing shorts and a sweatshirt.
“Obviously, he was really, really cold,” Mogen said.