Abalone divers rescued off Mendocino coast

Three abalone divers trapped on a Mendocino coast beach between rough seas and a tall cliff, escaped serious trouble with the help of firefighters and a rescue response including two Coast Guard helicopters.

Emergency responders and law enforcement officials said the three San Jose-area men risked their safety from the start when they launched at about 7 a.m. Tuesday from the Albion River. The men were identified by the Department of Fish and Wildlife as Tong Truong, 53, Tu Nguyen, 32, and 57-year-old Dong Tran.

They apparently ignored a friend’s warning that it was too dangerous to head out in a 10-foot, inflatable raft with a 2-horsepower motor. They faced increasingly huge swells, a strong outgoing tide, crashing waves and winds at times pushing 25 knots, authorities said.

“It was way too rough for diving,” said Mendocino Fire Chief Ed O’Brien, whose crew assisted Albion firefighters in the rescue. “They chose poorly and they were lucky to get out of there.”

“It was very dangerous. The vessel they had, they had no business being out there,” said Lt. Joel Hendricks of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In the end, the men hiked up the cliff with help from firefighters, who used a Mendocino cliff rescue truck with a hefty winch to hoist up their raft.

The men then faced Hendricks and state officers who issued them citations and warnings for various abalone violations, including a warning for over-picking. Hendricks said they had eight abalone and admitted to having picked at least four more that were lost in the rough waters. A total of 12 would be three more than their legal share for the day.

“They were not new to this sport. They had done it before,” Hendricks said. “They got in over their head.”

Hendricks said there were originally four people in the party.

The four, who were camping nearby, planned to head out early Tuesday in the raft for a two-hour run.

“Before they set off, one said to the other three, ‘It’s too rough. I don’t think we should go,’” Hendricks said.

As the others left shore, he stayed behind and waited at their campsite, said Hendricks.

About 12:30 p.m., when the divers were more than three hours overdue, the friend called for help, Mendocino County sheriff’s Lt. Greg Stefani said. An emergency dispatch went out to several agencies to aid three divers in distress somewhere along the Albion coastline.

The Coast Guard had two helicopters in the area for training and both headed that way, joining volunteers from the two fire agencies, state officers and a sheriff’s deputy.

The helicopter crew flying from Point Arena arrived first and found them in a bay, north of the river.

The men, all wearing wet suits, were standing on the beach, stranded between the crashing waves and the steep cliff. Their boat was ineffective against the pounding surf, Stefani said.

“They had been pushed in by the pretty significant swells in the area,” said Coast Guard Lt. John Briggs, who was on the second helicopter, which responded from Ukiah.

The men had been diving Monday and possibly Sunday as well. Some of the suspected violations occurred on the earlier dives, Hendricks said.

Citations can result in fines from $500 to $2,000 and higher, depending on the severity of the violation, Hendricks said.

Abalone season routinely includes the death of multiple divers, many who go out in bad conditions. And many of those have come to the North Coast from the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley. Too often, authorities say, they ignore bad conditions because they’ve driven a distance and don’t want to give up their chance.

While some years it takes only days for the first fatalities to occur, two weeks into this season there have been rescues conducted in Sonoma and Mendocino counties but no reported deaths.

“These could have been the first three,” said O’Brien.

Officials say divers need to check weather and tide conditions to make a smart decision about whether to dive.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.