LaPUSH — A 71-year-old man died while two other men survived after their boat capsized in choppy seas Tuesday.
It was one of three rescues of recreational boaters undertaken in 13-foot seas and fog during a halibut fishing derby some 20 miles offshore on Tuesday morning, said Lt. Eric Perdue, spokesman at Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
At 9:47 a.m., the master of a recreational boat radioed Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles that the boat was taking on water, but was unable to give a location before the boat capsized, Perdue said.
Only minutes later, two charter fishing vessels, the Fury and the Ultimate, radioed the Coast Guard that their crews had pulled three men in life jackets from the water.
The Ultimate crew started resuscitation, but one man was unresponsive.
A Canadian Coast Guard helicopter crew flew the man to Forks Municipal Airport, performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation along the way.
He was pronounced dead at Forks Community Hospital, the Coast Guard said.
An HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from the Astoria Coast Guard station took the other two men, who were suffering from hypothermia, to the Forks airport.
They were treated and discharged from Forks Community Hospital.
The Coast Guard identified none of the men,
A 47-foot motor lifeboat crew from the Quillayute River Coast Guard station also helped with the rescue.
The capsized boat eventually sank, Perdue said.
“We were not able to recover the boat, so we don’t know if it had a name or anything like that” he said.
Fishing season had enticed many to the Pacific coast off LaPush, Perdue said.
“There is no doubt that is the only way [the three men] were able to be pulled out of the water,” Perdue said.
Winds were about 15 mph, and “the seas were pretty choppy,” Perdue said.
“But there was that high concentration of recreational boats out there.”
