Coast Guard searching for fishing boat off Alaska with 6 on board

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska is searching for a fishing boat with six people on board missing in the Bering Sea.

Ships and aircraft are looking for the 98-foot-long F/V Destination, according to a news release from the agency on Sunday afternoon. The boat is owned by a company based in Seattle, Petty Officer 3rd Class Lauren Steenson said.

Brent Paine, executive director of the Seattle-based United Catcher Boats, said there are two vessels that fish off Alaska called the F/V Destination.

One of them is a trawler that belongs to his association, and is not the one that went missing. Paine said the other vessel - the target of the Coast Guard search - is a smaller vessel that has harvested crab. That vessel had been moored in Sand Point, Alaska, he said.

Paine said he doesn’t know anyone on the boat.

The Destination’s electronic position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) alert was picked up early Saturday morning, CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA-TV cites Steenson as sahying. The signal originated approximately two miles northwest of St. George, which is located west of Alaska’s mainland in the Bering Sea, KTVA says.

The device was recovered Saturday morning in a debris field containing buoys, a life ring and an oil sheen, Steenson added.

There was snow in the afrea, according to Steenson.

The Coast Guard doesn’t yet know the cause of the boat’s disappearance or whether anyone survived, Steenson said.

Coast Guard crews helping in the search include two HC-130 Hercules airplane crews, two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau, the agency said.

People on the small island of St. George are looking along the shore for any signs of the crew.

The agency said the water temperature was 38 degrees.