Fishing boat capsizes off Sonoma coast; four die, one survives

Four people were killed Saturday morning when a wave overturned their fishing boat off the coast of Sonoma County, sheriff’s officials said.

One person on board, 66-year-old Philip Sanchez of Bodega Bay, Calif., survived the accident, authorities said.

Clothed in jeans and a T-shirt and not wearing a life vest, Sanchez was rescued from a rock by a sheriff’s helicopter and treated at a hospital in Santa Rosa, according to the sheriff’s department. He had suffered minor scrapes and abrasion and “was very cold,” according to a sheriff’s statement.

U.S. Coast Guard responders recovered the four victims -- three men and one woman -- from the water. None were wearing life vests, though the equipment was available on the 32-foot, privately owned vessel used for fishing, according to the sheriff’s department.

Sanchez said the group had set out to go crabbing at 8:30 a.m. and was returning to Bodega Bay when a wave hit the boat’s port side, flipping it, according to the department. Alcohol or drugs are not believed to have played a role in the accident, which remains under investigation.

The identities of the deceased victims have not been released, pending notification of their families.

Saturday marked the opening of the recreational Dungeness crab season in the area.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Barry Bena, who is stationed in Alameda, said the Coast Guard received multiple calls about 10 a.m. reporting the accident.

Conditions in the area were reported to be “fairly decent,” he said.

Over the course of the day, the vessel was torn apart by the waves and the rocks, Bena said.

eryn.brown@latimes.com