The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for the two missing crewmen from the commercial fishing vessel Katmai, which sank Wednesday in remote Aleutian waters west of Adak Island.Carlos Martin Zabala, of Helena, Mont., and Robert Davis, of Whatcom County, Wash., were among 11 crewmen aboard the Katmai, which had been fishing for cod and was heading to Dutch Harbor with its catch.
Rescuers saved four crewmen from a life raft, and retrieved five bodies from the frigid waters.
The Coast Guard, which continued to search for the two missing men with the cutter Acushnet and aircraft, suspended the search at 9:36 a.m. today.
The Coast Guard and the Air National Guard searched 4,871 square miles of ocean over the past week, the Coast Guard said.
"While our minds remain on Coast Guard missions, our hearts are with the families during this difficult time," said Capt. Mike Inman, chief of response for the Coast Guard in Alaska.
A three-member panel of Coast Guard experts is scheduled to begin hearings Monday morning in Anchorage on the sinking of the 93-foot boat. Survivors and others are likely to be called to testify about what went wrong on the boat.
The crew was known to have been battling some flooding at the stern of the vessel, but the cause of the sinking remains unclear, Coast Guard officers have said.
Find Wesley Loy's commercial fishing blog online at adn.com/highliner or call 257-4590.
