Anchorage Daily News

KETCHIKAN -- The Ketchikan fisherman who drowned Saturday trying to retrieve a lure was a Coast Guardsman with 11 years' service, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard identified the man as Petty Officer First Class Sefton Reid, 31. The Ketchikan Fire Department recovered his body in Herring Cove, about eight miles south of Ketchikan, around 12:15 p.m. Saturday.

"While our minds are on the mission, our hearts are with his family," Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District, said in a written statement. "This is a sad day for the Coast Guard. He was a good shipmate and will be missed."

Reid was fishing from shore in Herring Cove when his lure snagged on a buoy maybe 200 feet offshore. He waded in to retrieve it and reached the buoy, but then began to struggle in the rough surf, according to a witness, Jim Lavrakas, who was fishing nearby.

Crews from the Ketchikan Fire Department, the Coast Guard station in Ketchikan and a commercial diving boat launched immediately after receiving the report. The divers found Reid.

Reid was assigned to Station Ketchikan for the past year. He leaves behind four children.

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