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Search Continues After Catalina Island Boat Crash Kills Son Of Former 49ers CEO
The search continues (Photo courtesy of the L.A. County Sheriffs Dept/@SEBLASD)
Rescue boats continue to search for the body of a man around Catalina Island after a boat collision left one fellow passenger dead and others injured.
Early Sunday morning, a dinghy carrying five passengers collided with another boat near the island's busy Descanso Bay, reports the L.A. Times. The collision killed one man—now identified as Michael Harris, son of the former chief executive of the San Francisco 49ers—while two other passengers had minor injuries and another received a head injury. Search teams, however, have been unable to locate the fifth passenger—whose identity has not been released.
After a day long search yesterday, the Coast Guard concluded their efforts to find the man last night. But two boats from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. and one from the Catalina port police, continue to look for the man's body. At this point, the search is regarded as a recovery operation and not a rescue. “They don’t expect to find this person alive at this point,” Deputy Amber Smith told the Times. “It would be wonderful if they did, but they don’t expect that.”
Further details of the collision have not yet been released.
In an unrelated search effort at sea, boaters from Ventura County to Catalina to Orange County are encouraged to continue keeping a look out for a blue whale that was tangled in over 300 feet of fishing line. The 80-foot whale was last spotted in the waters between Los Angeles Harbor and Catalina Island.
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