A day after the Coast Guard suspended its search for three fishermen who went missing after their boat capsized off the North Shore of Oahu on Sunday, Kauai Fire Department personnel Friday recovered two bodies and briefly spotted an overturned vessel in waters off Kauai.
While the bodies have not yet been identified, fire officials believe they are two of the three missing fishermen. The Coast Guard confirmed that there were no other active cases in the area involving missing persons.
Friends and avid fishermen Jensen Loo, Clint
Oshima and Derek Thomas, all 30, left Haleiwa Boat Harbor on Sunday morning in the 20-foot vessel Iwa. They were reported missing Sunday night after not returning as scheduled.
On Monday the Coast Guard spotted the Iwa overturned about 25 miles off the harbor.
Over the next four days, Coast Guard boats and planes and Hawaii County watercraft and helicopters searched a total of more than 27,600 square miles. The search area began off the North Shore but extended as far west as Kauai and north up to nearly 100 miles offshore, based on drift models.
The Coast Guard suspended the search Thursday evening.
On Friday morning a boater contacted the state Department of Land and Natural Resources after recovering a life jacket in water about 5 miles off Port Allen. The life jacket was confirmed to be from the missing vessel.
DLNR launched a boat to conduct a sea-based search while firefighters conducted an air-based search using KFD’s Air 1
helicopter.
Shortly before 4 p.m. a fisherman notified KFD of
a male body found roughly 2 to 3 miles off Anahola.
Firefighters launched Whaler II from Waikaea Small Boat Harbor in Kapaa to recover the body. As the boat was heading back to shore, the Air 1 crew reported that it had located an overturned vessel about a half-mile away.
Around 5:30 p.m., as Whaler II was searching for the overturned vessel, the Air 1 crew spotted a second body roughly 2 miles off Wailua.
Whaler II recovered the second body and brought both back to Waikaea Small Boat Ramp at approximately 7 p.m.
