Investigators have released more details about the death of a deckhand on a crab boat who was pulled overboard and into the ocean off the coast south of Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the San Mateo County Harbormaster responded to a reported emergency on a commercial fishing vessel about 4 miles off the coast of Pescadero at around 3:25 p.m., San Mateo County Sheriff's officials said.
James Allshouse, 49, of South San Francisco, had been at work onboard the 40-foot vessel "Seabird" with two other people when a fishing line from a crab pot pulled him overboard, Sheriff's Lt. Larry Schumaker said.
Schumaker said Allshouse's arm got caught in a rope, and that another deckhand, Scott Schmitz, was also nearly pulled into the ocean but managed to grab onto the boat with his arms as he went overboard.
Schmitz and the boat's captain, Daniel Stuckley, were able to pull Allshouse out of the water after two to three minutes, but Allshouse was unconscious, Schumaker said.
"When they pulled him up, his arm was still wrapped in the rope," Schumaker said.
Meanwhile, the Seabird had sent out a distress call, and the crew of another crab boat nearby, the "Pale Horse," responded. One man on that boat, 28-year-old Christian Larson, donned cold-water gear and swam to the Seabird, where he assisted with CPR, Schumaker said.
A Coast Guard boat then arrived, and Allshouse was moved onto that vessel.
The Coast Guard transported Allshouse to Pillar Point Harbor, where a waiting ambulance took him to Seton Coastside Hospital in Moss Beach. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 6:15 p.m.
The incident remains under investigation.
— Bay City News
Editor's Note: The photo accompanying this story of fishing boats off the Half Moon Bay coast is for illustration only; it is not the crabbing boat that the deckhand was working on when he died.
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