LOS ANGELES — Sixteen people were rescued from the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s Baja California coast on Friday after the U.S. Coast Guard responded to a May Day call reporting the vessel was sinking. Another 11 people were believed missing.
The boat’s origin, destination and what it was doing were not clear. It went down in an area frequented by smugglers transporting migrants to the U.S., but which is also popular with fishing and leisure boats.
One rescued person was being treated for a suspected shark bite and two people were in critical condition, authorities said.
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By the time crews reached the area “people were holding onto each other, to debris, just treading and trying to stay above water before being rescued,” Coast Guard Lt. Santiago Tamburini said.
Survivors clung to debris, but the boat was gone
No vessel, only debris, was found and it was unclear what type of boat was involved, the Coast Guard in San Diego said. It received reports of 27 people in the water approximately 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Ensenada, Mexico, after getting the distress call at about 1 a.m. Friday.
“Boats in that area can be for fishing, leisure, personal recreation. We just don’t know what they were doing out there. We all know it’s a suspected smuggling route,” Tamburini said.
“The sea is unforgiving” in that area, he added, and it was unclear if the vessel got lost, had engine failure, was swept out to sea or meant to go that far.
A person on the vessel transmitted the May Day call saying it was sinking, he said. It was unclear if any of the passengers were wearing life vests, he said.
One rescued person said as many as 27 people had been on board, Petty Officer Chris Sappey said.
Two of the people rescued were Mexican nationals, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Those rescued were flown by helicopter to San Diego and transported to hospitals.
Three were taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, including the person with a suspected shark bite and two people treated for cold exposure, said hospital spokesperson Janice Collins. Three others were evaluated at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and later discharged, said Steve Carpowich, a Scripps Health spokesperson.
Two patients were in critical condition, said Matt Hoffman, a spokesperson for the city of San Diego. It was not clear if that included the suspected shark bite victim or the two people with cold exposure.
The search continues for 11 missing people
The Coast Guard and U.S. Navy were searching the area with two helicopters, a fixed-wing plane, a cutter and a Navy combat ship.
The Mexican Navy also launched a search and rescue operation from Ensenada, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of San Diego by road.
Conditions on the water at 1 a.m. Friday appeared to be windy but fairly typical for the area, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Suk in San Diego. Winds out of the north and northwest measured about 10 knots (18.5 kilometers per hour) and waves measured 5 feet (1.5 meters) at a buoy north of Ensenada, he said.
“I wouldn’t want to be out there in a sea kayak,” Suk said. “For the vessels that usually operate out there, they’re usually built to handle things like that.”
The water temperature measured 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) — fairly warm for the Pacific — and the air was 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius), Suk said.
Deadly smuggling accidents have struck these waters before
Migrants are increasingly turning to the risky alternative offered by smugglers to travel by sea to avoid heavily guarded land borders. Small boats called pangas leave Baja in the dead of night and sometimes travel hundreds of miles (kilometers) north.
There have been several episodes where migrant vessels capsized en route to California in recent years.
In May of 2025, at least three people died when a panga flipped off the coast about 35 miles (56 km) north of the U.S.-Mexico border. In 2023, eight people were killed in one of the deadliest maritime smuggling accidents off the U.S. coast, when two boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog and one capsized in the surf.
A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison in 2022 for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that smashed apart in powerful surf off the coast, killing three people and injuring more than two dozen.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, Fabiola Sanchez in Mexico City and Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas contributed to this story.
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