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ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this image released by the Mexican Navy on Monday July 4, 2011, survivors of a capsized boat sit inside a helicopter after being rescued by the Navy in the town of San Felipe, Mexico Monday July 4, 2011. A U.S. tourist died after a fishing boat capsized in an unexpected storm in the Gulf of California off the Baja California peninsula and of the 44 people on the boat, seven U.S. tourists remain missing along with one Mexican crew member, the Mexican Navy said. (AP Photo/SEMAR)
TIJUANA, Mexico >> Mexican rescuers were scouring the Gulf of California for seven U.S. tourists whose fishing boat capsized two days ago, saying they were extending their search because the missing tourists could still be alive in the warm, calm waters.
One American has been confirmed dead in the accident, which came after a sudden storm upended the boat before dawn Sunday, spilling dozens of tourists and crew members into the water. The identity of the dead man was not released.
By early Monday, 19 of the tourists and all 16 crew members had been picked up by the navy or other fishing boats after clinging to coolers, rescue rings and life vests for more than 16 hours.
Mexican navy, army and state officials met late Monday to discuss the search and there were reports they would call off rescue efforts. But instead they announced the search would continue over an extended area.
Mexican navy Capt. Benjamin Pineda Gomez said that with the warm weather and water temperature in the Gulf of California, it’s still possible that the missing tourists are alive.
“A person who casts away can survive many days. That sea is calm,” he said.
Most of the 27 men on the fishing excursion are from Northern California and had made the trip before.
Gary Wong was on the trip with three brothers, Glen, Craig and Brian, all from the San Francisco Bay Area. The group had made the trip twice before, according to a relative, who asked not to be named. Brian Wong, of Berkeley, is still missing.
“We’re not leaving until we find him,” Gary Wong told “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “One way or another.”
Pius “Pete” Zuger was among a group of eight friends who caravaned down to Mexico in two cars for the fishing trip. They had hoped to catch a lot of yellowtail, said his wife, Jackie Zuger, of Novato, California.
As of Monday night, all but one of the men, Russell Bautista, had been accounted for.
After the ship capsized, Zuger and another man, David Levine, jumped on one of the dinghies the expedition planned to use for angling.
“He was in a room with Russ, four in a room together,” Jackie Zugar said of her husband. It happened so fast, and it turned over, and he said he flew across the room and they said, ‘We gotta get out of here,'” she said.
The seven survivors also plan to stay in San Felipe until they get word of Bautista, an experienced boat owner who often took the other men fishing or crabbing, Jackie Zuger said.
Another survivor, Lee Ikegami, called his wife in San Martin, California, and told her he survived by clambering into a life raft when the boat overturned.
“There was an angel sitting on his shoulder,” his wife, Murphy Ikegami, said.
The U.S. Coast Guard offered Mexico help in the search and rescue operation and said it will continue its operations.
The 115-foot (35-meter) vessel, the Erik, sank about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the port of San Felipe around 2:30 a.m. local time Sunday, the second day of a weeklong fishing trip the group had organized for several years each Independence Day holiday.
The boat capsized less than two miles (three kilometers) from shore, but the navy extended its search 60 miles (100 kilometers) deeper into the gulf later Monday after searching the area by helicopter and airplane and finding nothing, Pineda said.
Those rescued were in good condition with a few scrapes after bobbing in the intense sun and Gulf waters that were about 77 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius), according to the Mexican navy. Photos released by the Mexican navy showed several sunburned fishermen in T-shirts and Bermuda shorts waiting to get on a bus.
The Erik has been on the Gulf of California, known in Mexico as the Sea of Cortez, since 1989, according to the website of the company Baja Sportfishing Inc. It was built in Holland and was equipped with stabilizers to handle the turbulent North Sea.
The California Secretary of State website says Baja Sportfishing’s business license has been suspended. It doesn’t state a reason or give a date.
“We have been working with Mexican Navy authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard in the search and rescue,” Baja Sportfishing Inc. said in statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. “Right now our main concern is making sure that everyone is accounted for.”
The company would not comment further. It said on its website Monday that all trips have been canceled.
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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Mexico City, Lisa Leff in San Francisco, California, and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report
