LAPUSH — The identity of the captain of a Neah Bay fishing vessel missing since the boat capsized Sunday has been confirmed by his family.
The Coast Guard search for Kenneth Martin was suspended at 9:30 p.m. Sunday after a 17-hour search.
Martin, skipper of the Sea Beast, was not seen after his crew got off the 52-foot commercial fishing vessel before it overturned in the Pacific Ocean about 14 miles west of LaPush early Sunday.
Martin was a member of the Makah tribe and brother of Bill Martin, who said Monday that his family would make a statement about the loss of his brother at a later time.
The search for Martin covered more than 498 square miles around the area where the Sea Beast was last seen, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Klingenberg, spokesman for the Coast Guard in Seattle.
The Coast Guard said Sunday that the “window of survivability” in the cold Pacific Ocean water — if Martin was wearing a survival suit — ended at about 10 p.m. Sunday.
“One of the hardest decisions the Coast Guard has to make is when to suspend a search for a missing person. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the friends, family and loved ones of the vessel captain,” Cmdr. Brian Meier of the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound response division said.
Three members of the crew were found in a life raft after a 3 a.m. mayday call from the stricken vessel, which overturned before Martin could join his crew in the lifeboat, according to the Coast Guard.
During the mayday call, Martin said the stern of the Sea Beast was sinking.
The ocean was relatively calm, with 5 to 10 mph winds and 4-foot seas, according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard instructed Martin and his three crew members to don survival suits and evacuate to their life raft.
Crew members told the Coast Guard that Martin was still on the vessel when it overturned and sank.
Klingenberg said the Sea Beast is submerged in 400 feet of water.
Twelve individual searches were conducted by a Coast Guard Station Quillayute River 47-foot motor life boat crew, two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter air crews from Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Astoria and the Coast Guard cutter Blue Shark crew, based in Everett but at sea when the mayday was heard.
The Sea Beast, built in 1974, was a red and white live-hold boat, which keeps fish and crab alive in an aerated tank in the hold.
The website www.boatinfoworld.com, which tracks vessel registrations, lists the owner of the Sea Beast as Glen Halttunen Jr.
The sinking occurred in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and the state Department of Ecology was notified by the Coast Guard because the Sea Beast can carry up to 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, according to the Coast Guard.
Lisa Copeland, spokeswoman for Ecology, said Monday that the boat was too far from the coastline and in waters too deep for the agency.
Any decision on how to manage the wreck would be left up to the Coast Guard, Copeland said.
The Coast Guard said no apparent pollution from the sunken vessel was reported, and the Sea Beast was not thought to be a hazard to navigation.
“Typically at that depth it is considered lost and unrecoverable,” Klingenberg said.
Eventually the ocean will reclaim it, and it will become an artificial reef, he said.
Anyone with information about the sinking of the Sea Beast is asked to call the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound command center on VHF-FM radio Channel 16 or by phoning 206-217-6001.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
