Abalone diver found dead
Published: Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 9:36 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 9:36 a.m.
The body of an abalone diver was recovered Thursday afternoon after two divers rescued at the scene the day before returned to pull their companion from the ocean.
The body of Oakland resident Yong Lu, 46, was recovered despite large swells and pouring rain that previously prevented rescue divers from entering the water, authorities said.
A rescue crew instead repelled down a steep cliff to the rough water’s edge, where Lu’s one-time diving companions held his body against the rocks to the surf would not wash him back out before he could be recovered, authorities said.
Lu’s daughter watched the recovery effort from the top of a bluff and was there to confirm her father’s identity once his remains were recovered, authorities said.
“This is a very sad scenario,” said Pacific Star winemaker Sally Ottoson, whose home above the winery looks out toward the cove where Lu died. “I don’t think people really realize the power of the ocean and the fact that all it takes is one bump on the head and there’s another death.”
Lu is at least the seventh person to lose his life while hunting abalone off the Mendocino County coast this year, though authorities said heart conditions contributed to three deaths.
Two others died off the Sonoma Coast — one after falling from rocks at Bodega Bay and another while scuba diving in Stillwater Cove Regional Park.
Lu’s fate became known around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after Ottoson noticed three men running toward her home near Westport and learned that three of their companions were stranded in the cove, surrounded by huge waves.
She called 911 and followed the men back to the cliff to find that two of the divers had climbed onto a steep sea stack about 150 feet from the shoreline, while the third was tossed about in the water below, still attached to his dive float.
His comrades clung to their perches for several hours, awaiting the arrival of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter that plucked them from the rocks, Ottoson said.
But they were unable to get a firm fix on Lu’s body in the dark, and conditions were too rough to put divers in the water, authorities said.
“The water was being very aggressive,” said Fort Bragg Fire Chief Steve Orsi, who was on the scene with others from his department. “It was one of those situations.”
The same was true Thursday morning, when officials caught a glimpse of Lu’s body, which had appeared to surface in the roiling waves.
“Trying to get anybody down there, with the water conditions, is extremely dangerous and unsafe,” Mendocino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Wristen said, citing swells of 18 feet.
Lu’s body eventually swept back toward the cliffs and was close to the rocky edge when Lu’s family and friends arrived, two of them getting back into the water down the cliff side, including one with an air tank, said sheriff’s Lt. Dennis Bushnell.
They were able to hold the body until its recovery.
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.
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