Coast Guard monitoring sunken fishing vessel near Ilwaco

ILWACO, Wash. (AP) — The Coast Guard is monitoring a sunken fishing vessel in Ilwaco Channel for possible pollution and as a potential hazard to navigation.

Coast Guard pollution responders and investigators arrived on the scene around 8:40 a.m. Saturday. A light sheen has been reported in the area. The boat has up to 500 gallons of diesel fuel aboard the vessel.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Katelyn Shearer reports the Coast Guard office in Warrenton, Oregon, received a report from a good Samaritan early Saturday that the 37-foot fishing vessel Four Forty was stuck in a piling in the channel. Shearer says the good Samaritan also rescued two people from that vessel before it sank in about 40 feet of water.

The Coast Guard says the owner of the fishing boat is working with a salvage company to remove it from the channel.