Coast Guard personnel are looking for a fisherman after receiving a report he was overdue from a week-long fishing trip offshore the Washington coast, Wednesday. The Coast Guard has diverted the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Wahoo, an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat homeported in Port Angeles, and has the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Alert, a 210-foot Medium Endurance Cutter homeported in Warrenton, Ore., en route to conduct searches and call out for the vessel. A Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircrew, from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, found a possible vessel matching the description 182 miles offshore of Tillamook Head, Ore., while making call outs and conducting radar searches, and the crew of the Alert is en route to confirm. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew out of Air Station Astoria, Ore., and an HC-130 Hercules aircrew from Air Station Sacramento, Cali., are schedule to launch at first light to aid in the search as well. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Columbia River received the report around 7:50 p.m. from Station Grays Harbor personnel after the fisherman’s wife initially contacted the station. The fisherman was last seen fishing for Albacore on his 59-foot vessel the Pacific Rim about 75 miles northwest of Grays Harbor, Wash., Oct. 15, 2015. “If there is anyone that has additional information regarding the fisherman or the fishing vessel Pacific Rims whereabouts, please contact the Coast Guard at 503-861-6211,” said Petty Officer 1st Class John Bennett, operations unit controller at Sector Columbia River. “We treat every report seriously as every minute counts in this environment.”
