Coast Guard searchers: All safe on fishing boat off Florida

Eds: MAJOR UPDATE: This story has been updated with charter fishing vessel’s occupants all safe and accounted for by Coast Guard.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard said all are safe aboard a charter fishing boat that put out a distress call Saturday near the northeast Florida coast.

The fishing vessel, Drop Hook Charters, sent out a distress signal call around 2 p.m. Saturday, two hours after it had been boarded by Florida Fish and Wildlife officers for a routine regulation inspection, the Coast Guard had said hours earlier.

On Saturday evening, the Coast Guard tweeted that its Jacksonville sector had confirmed the boat had been located and “all people are safe and accounted for!” The Coast Guard didn’t elaborate on how many were aboard or the circumstances for the distress call or its location.

WJXT-TV reported Saturday that winds were light and there were no storms before mid-afternoon in the region.

Coast Guard officials said they had been searching Satruday afternoon for the boat at its last known location where wildlife officers boarded it, almost 14 miles (22 kilometers) northeast of the St. Johns Inlet. The inlet is located near where that river reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

The Coast Guard Station at Savannah, Georgia, and another in Clearwater, Florida, were providing search support by air, the Coast Guard had said.

WJXT-TV reported that the fishing vessel is used by a charter company that runs deep sea fishing excursions out of Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

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