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Two Still Missing From Sunken Fishing Vessel Off Alaska Coast

Posted: 5:03 pm PDT October 22, 2008Updated: 10:07 pm PDT October 24, 2008

Two fishermen are still missing off Alaska's Aleutian Islands despite another search effort Friday. Crews will decide whether or not to resume their search on Saturday.

The Coast Guard Public Affairs office in Anchorage told KIRO 7 that a plane and a helicopter were up searching the waters Friday, but there was no sign of two missing crewmembers, Robert Davis of Deming, Wash., and Carlos Zabala of Helena, Mont.

The bodies of Cedric Smith and Glenn Harper of Portland, Ore., Jake Gilman of Camas, Wash., Joshua Leonguerrero of Spanaway, Wash., and Fuli Lemusu of Salem, Ore., were recovered by the Coast Guard and two Good Samaritan fishing vessels. Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said the dead were found floating in survival suits but were not in life rafts.

The four crew members who survived were found in good condition Wednesday afternoon after spending about 15 hours floating in the ocean. They were in survival suits and in a life raft. The survivors are Captain Joe Blake of Massachusetts, Guy Schroder and Harold Appling of Anchorage and Adam Foster of Shoreline.

All 11 fishermen were crew members of the 93-foot Katmai, a cod fisher-processor vessel that sank about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage as it was headed to toward Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, 800 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Coast Guard video obtained by KIRO 7 Eyewitness News shows part of the rescue. One fisherman wearing an orange survival suit can be seen in a basket as rescuers in a Jayhawk helicopter winch him up to safety while the pilot fights strong winds to hold position over the overturned life raft below.

Blake's sister told the Anchorage Daily News that there had originally been six men in the life raft, but raging seas first ripped off the canopy and then overturned the raft. When it came back up, two men were gone.

Jake Gillman of Camas is one of the victims killed when the Katmai sank.

The Coast Guard said Thursday that the Katmai sent an e-mail to a nearby vessel before sinking that said it was taking on water in the rear, where the steering was housed.

All the crew members were able to get into survival suits, according to members of the vessel that received the e-mail, said Read.

A survival suit can extend the life of people in cold waters, depending on their physical condition, how panicked they are or whether they are in a group or a life raft. Without a suit, death comes quickly.

"If you don't have a survival suit, it can be minutes," Read said.

An electronic distress signal was sent to the Coast Guard from the Katmai about 1 a.m. Wednesday.

Seattle-based Katmai Fisheries said the Katmai was the company's only ship.

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