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Lobster Fisherman Still Missing After Boat Flipped Over On Friday Night
A fisherman whose boat was flipped by a large wave remains missing as authorities continue the search on Saturday.
On Friday night, 60-year-old Chris Gregory was fishing for lobster with his friend off the coast of Ventura when a 5-foot wave knocked the two of them into the water around 8:30 p.m. "Things were fine until this rogue wave came in," Vicki Johnson, Gregory's sister, told KTLA. "They turned the boat in to the wave, like you're supposed to, and it flipped the boat over and they went flying."
The other man, identified only as George, managed to swim back to shore, but alerted authorities when he realized that Gregory had not managed to swim back. Crews from multiple agencies searched through the night from the shore, by boat, and by air. Divers were called back when one of them bumped into a 6-foot juvenile great white shark. The diver was uninjured.
"We're hoping that my brother, with his ocean sense, and his common sense, and his toughness, that he is out there clinging to a rock, hanging on waiting to be rescued," said Johnson.
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Update: The Coast Guard has called off the search for Chris Gregory. A spokesperson for the agency told KTVN that they had "exhausted all efforts.
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