A fishing boat accident on Monday at the mouth of Tomales Bay left one man dead and another still missing after crews permanently called off a search Tuesday night. A third boater was rescued from the rocks at Tomales Point.
The trio launched from Lawson’s Landing at around 7 a.m. on Monday in a 20-foot fishing boat that capsized due to heavy surf conditions at the bay’s mouth, according to the Marin County Fire Department. None of the boaters were wearing life vests, though vests were found in the boat once it washed up onto a beach near Tomales Point.
Authorities attributed the capsize to windy, foggy weather at the mouth on Monday, preceding storms anticipated to arrive later in the week.
Later that morning, a fisherman spotted a body floating in the water, setting off a rescue operation that included the National Park Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Marin County Fire, California Highway Patrol and Bodega Bay Fire. Over 40 people combed the shorelines Monday and Tuesday, peering down from high vantage points towards the surf below, looking for the lost boater. A Coast Guard vessel scanned the water throughout Monday night, while a couple of boats and a helicopter searched all day on Tuesday, but to no avail.
The boater stranded on the Tomales Point rocks was flown to Lawson’s Landing, then to a hospital.
The Marin County Coroner identified the deceased boater as Ananiy Malinovskiy, a 55-year-old resident of Roseville, Calif., and a father of eight children. A GoFundMe page set up to support Mr. Malinovskiy’s family noted that he was a missionary who frequently visited Mexico and was planning to travel to Africa.
The tragedy marks the seventh fatality in Tomales Bay this year. In April, four boaters perished when their 21-foot pleasure craft went missing, also near Tomales Point, during a fishing trip.
“It’s just an awful number, obviously,” said John Dell’Osso, a spokesman for the Point Reyes National Seashore.
But this week’s tragedy also marked the sixth rescue operation this year in the bay. Most recently, in September, 54 kayakers were rescued by the county fire department after being stranded on Tomales Bay beaches, following dramatic wind shifts and high tides that surprised kayakers during a bioluminescence tour, a highly popular night tour where microorganisms emit phosphorescent glows on moonless nights. Additionally, previous operations rescued a total of five boaters, two surfers and two other kayakers.