Search efforts were suspended Sunday for a 60-year-old man who is presumed to have fallen overboard near Whittier, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Victor Moreno was reported missing around 6 a.m. Saturday near Surprise Cove and Cochrane Bay, about 10 miles east of Whittier, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Moreno was aboard a 26-foot Cuddy Cabin boat with four other people when they noticed he was missing, said Petty Officer Lexie Preston. He was presumed to have fallen overboard, but it was not immediately clear what may have caused it, Preston said.
The group had been on the water for recreational purposes, Preston said. Details were not available about when boat had departed or where from, or when it was due to return.
A Coast Guard crew from Kodiak searched the area with a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a team from Valdez searched with a 45-foot response boat, the Coast Guard statement said.
Crews searched for about 13 hours Saturday and covered roughly 325 nautical miles, the Coast Guard said. The search was suspended around 8:30 p.m., but Moreno was not found, the statement said.
“Suspending a search is always a difficult decision to make, and it is not one made lightly,” Cory Cichoracki, Sector Anchorage command duty officer, said in the statement.
Moreno was last seen wearing a green jacket, green pants and brown boots, the Coast Guard said.