Fisherman missing nearly two weeks found on raft 70 miles from shore, WA officials say
A fisherman missing for nearly two weeks was spotted floating in a raft about 70 miles from the Washington coastline, officials said.
The man was rescued by boaters Oct. 26, northwest of Cape Flattery, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest posted on Twitter, now rebranded as X.
He was last seen Oct. 12 leaving Westport with another fisherman in a 43-foot wooden hull boat, McClatchy News previously reported.
They were supposed to return Oct. 15 from fishing, but they never did, officials said. The other man has not been found as of Oct. 27.
Two people from Sooke, British Columbia, came across the man floating on a raft, KING-TV reported.
They pulled him onto their boat, and the fisherman told them he caught and ate a salmon to survive after he ran out of food and water, the news outlet reported.
It’s not clear how long he was on the raft alone or why he ended up separated from the other fisherman, but he was reported as being in stable condition.
The U.S. Coast Guard told McClatchy News the incident is under investigation so these details are not available yet.
A cellphone signal was pinged from one of the men’s phones Oct. 12, when they were last heard from.
A woman then reported her father missing, prompting search efforts Oct. 22, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier told McClatchy News Oct. 25.
Rescuers searched for the missing boat and men, covering over 14,000 square miles in eight hours, officials said.
Strohmaier said the search included areas off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, south to Newport, Oregon.
Rescuers also scanned the ocean from aircrafts “in an east to west area of about 100-miles offshore of the Oregon, Washington, and SW Vancouver Island coast,” he said.
Grays Harbor County is on the Olympic Peninsula in the southwestern part, and it sits along the Pacific Ocean.
Westport is about 100 miles southwest of Tacoma.
This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Fisherman missing nearly two weeks found on raft 70 miles from shore, WA officials say."
