A man who drowned near the Point Arena lighthouse on Thursday morning was the third abalone diver to die on the Mendocino Coast in little more than 24 hours, authorities said.
The victim, said to be a Laotian immigrant from the Bay Area, was on an annual trip with a friend and the friend's girlfriend when he apparently drowned in choppy surf off the south side of Lighthouse Road, his companions told lighthouse manager Rae Lynne Radtkey.
He was pronounced dead on a remote beach after his friends pulled him from the water and attempted to resuscitate him, authorities said.
Emergency officials were alerted when someone climbed to Lighthouse Road and flagged a passing motorist, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
The victim's name was not released, and the recovery of his body was said to be difficult because of the rugged terrain and the beach's location below some bluffs.
High tide had come in, forcing emergency personnel to remove his body via a long line attached to a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, Redwood Coast Fire Chief Michael Suddith said. Emergency crews also had to rappel in and out of the scene along the cliff, Suddith said.
The drowned man is the third abalone hunter to die on the Mendocino Coast since Wednesday morning, including a woman identified Thursday as Gilroy resident Selina Sau Yee Cheung, who died about 200 yards north of Thursday's drowning scene, in the same cove near what's known as Sea Lion Island, Suddith said.
Cheung, 60, is believed to have suffered from an acute medical condition while rock picking with a group near there early Wednesday, authorities said.
A pending autopsy should help determine what killed her, but preliminary investigations suggest she did not drown, Mendocino County Sheriff's Lt. Rusty Noe said.
Her death was nearly simultaneous with that of an Atascadero man who drowned around 7 a.m. Wednesday while rock picking in a cove in Caspar, about 35 miles north of Point Arena.
Friends found Arthur Boyd, 70, floating in the water near shore, authorities said. They pulled him out and called for help, but it was too late to save him.
Together the three are the first abalone-related deaths on the North Coast since the season opened April 1.
Abalone fishing is inherently dangerous and historically takes several lives each year, though no deaths were recorded last year. Three people died and two were seriously injured on the Sonoma-Mendocino coastline in 2005.
Six people drowned in 2004 -- five of them on the Mendocino Coast -- and one diver was fatally bitten by a great white shark near Ten Mile Beach in Mendocino County.
``The ocean is rough, the terrain is rough,'' Suddith said. ``Obviously, it's a sport, or recreation, that takes its toll on people, unfortunately.''
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat. com.
MAP: 1 by Press Democrat: Mendocino Coast drownings
