photo credit: Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
A small recreational boat rests on Salmon Creek Beach after capsizing in
rough seas on November 18th. One of the five people on board died as a result.

Earlier this month rough seas coincided with the start of recreational crabbing season, with tragic results. KRCB News called up the Coast Guard for a closer look.

It's hardly five miles separating Mussel Point and Carmet Beach, but the long sandy stretch spanning the two, Salmon Creek Beach, has proved treacherous for boaters in the past year, fatally so.

Three small boats have capsized in the area just this month, claiming five lives.

A fourth vessel, the commercial fishing boat Aleutian Storm, ran aground in rough seas on the beach just north of Mussel Point this past February.

One person whose attention is frequently turned towards the waters off Bodega Bay is the US Coast Guard's Mark Leahey.

"I'm a search and rescue mission coordinator," Lieutenant Commander Leahey said. "So in that capacity I oversee and manage all maritime search and rescue cases in Northern California."

Of the seas around Salmon Creek beach specifically, Leahey said, "it is a challenging part of our area, an area that can have rough weather."

"The remote nature of that area as well," Leahey said. "You combine kind of all those factors together and it can create kind of this, this perfect, perfect storm for, for search and rescue cases."

The three recent incidents have coincided with the start of crab season, Leahey noted.

"It's a small window where you can do recreational crabbing and unfortunately at this time of year, the weather is, it's very rough and we were in a small craft advisory for all of these cases," Leahey said.

Leahey outlined the conditions that trigger a small craft advisory.

"When people hear that term, what it means is sustained winds are 20 knots, which is about 20 miles an hour, to about 33 knots or miles per hour, and seas are going to be four to seven feet or greater," Leahey said. "So this is really the first indication when you hear small craft advisory that the weather is really rough."

In addition to the challenging conditions, this month's boating incidents have all involved individuals from outside Sonoma County, but Leahey stressed that no matter who is venturing into open water, they should take warnings and advisories to heart.

"We really encourage mariners recreational commercial, doesn't matter who you are, you have to check the weather before you go out on your recreational expedition, your fishing expedition, whatever it might be," Leahey said. "But it's not just the current weather either. It's also that forecasted weather."

But, Leahy said, it's ultimately on the person at the helm to make the responsible call.

"If you're a mariner with not a lot of experience, maybe the boat's been in storage for a while and you haven't done a thorough check of the boat and the safety gear, the weather's really bad; all those factors line up to say, you know, it's probably not a great idea for you to go out," Leahey said. "But the Coast guard's not going to restrict recreational traffic from going out. All we can really do is advise on what the situation looks like."