Search Abandoned for Other Victims of Sunken Boat

Coast Guard investigators said Wednesday that a third man was believed to be aboard a commercial fishing boat that apparently sank in a busy shipping lane 10 miles off Newport Beach, killing two others.

Rescuers gave up a daylong hunt for the boat and any other victims Tuesday night after recovering two bodies amid a trail of debris.

Authorities on Wednesday identified one of the men as Nhieu Van Nguyen, 52, a licensed commercial fisherman from San Gabriel. Relatives of the other victim, identified earlier as Khanh Nguyen, 50, of Alhambra, told investigators that he had left home on a fishing outing late Monday night with a friend they did not identify. The two victims were not related.

Coast Guard Petty Officer James Bride said the missing man, identified as Cong Minh Ta, 54, of San Gabriel, was the owner of the vessel that apparently sank, a 45-foot commercial fishing boat named Tammy that was based at Fish Harbor on Terminal Island.

Some who took part in the search said the busy harbor is home to a large number of fishing boats that have little navigational equipment and are poorly lighted.

“Those of us who work the area said it’s probably a Fish Harbor boat,” said Lt. John Lorentzen, who commands a Los Angeles County lifeguard boat used in the search.

Bride said Ta’s son contacted the Coast Guard on Wednesday morning to report that his father had not returned from his fishing trip. Investigators called Ta’s fish buyer, confirming the boat had not arrived and that at least one of the men whose bodies were found had been aboard.

The fish buyer, Hoang Ha of Monterey Park, said Wednesday night that he had warned Nhieu Nguyen against letting the boat travel into an area heavily traveled by tankers and freight ships.

“I told him to be careful so many years ago,” Ha said. “But, he said that the ships could see him. He said every big ship has a radar. I told him, ‘You’ve got to move from that area. It’s too dangerous.’ He didn’t believe me.”

Officials were still trying to determine what happened to the boat, which apparently sank without issuing a distress signal in the hazardous area.

A woman who answered the telephone at the San Gabriel home of Nhieu Nguyen’s brother declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.

Coast Guard searchers recovered the two bodies early Tuesday morning after a private boater spotted one of them while traveling from Newport Beach to Santa Catalina Island. Searchers then hunted vainly over 450 square miles for the victims’ boat, finding only clothing, ice chests, a bait container and other gear from a fishing vessel.

The search ended because of darkness Tuesday and Coast Guard officials, who did not know at the time if others were aboard, decided it was pointless to resume looking Wednesday.

“We searched as much as we can,” said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Brandy Ian. “We saturated that area with our resources.”

An official with the state Department of Fish and Game said that Nhieu Nguyen held a boat skipper’s license and a separate permit to fish with gill nets, which are stretched in the water over hundreds of feet and snare fish by the gills as they swim through.

Department spokesman Patrick Moore said the records indicated that Nguyen held the licenses at least the past two years.

Records showed Khanh Nguyen once held a commercial fishing license but it expired in 1987, Moore said.

Coast Guard officials and others who sail the waters where the bodies were recovered said it is a hazardous area because it is so heavily traveled by heavy ships, prompting speculation that the boat the victims were on might have been involved in a collision.

The cause of death was not known Wednesday. The bodies, taken to shore at Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor and then to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, were expected to be examined today, a coroner’s spokesman said.

Times staff writers Tally Goldstein and Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.