Overview
- The two men left a campsite in Tomales Bay just before midnight over the weekend to view bioluminescence and did not return, prompting searchers the next morning.
- Authorities identified the victims as 37-year-old Alexander Ferguson of Pacifica and 36-year-old Casey Flynn Melia of San Francisco.
- The U.S. Coast Guard found Ferguson unresponsive in the water and he was taken to Bodega Bay where he was pronounced dead; the National Park Service recovered Melia near Hog Island and he was pronounced dead at Sacramento Landing.
- A joint investigation by the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service is underway and coroner examinations and toxicology tests are pending with Marin and Sonoma county offices handling the separate cases.
- Neighbors and Pacifica officials mourned Ferguson’s civic work as a long-serving planning commissioner and local outfitters reiterated warnings about Tomales Bay’s cold water, strong currents and the extra hazards of nighttime paddling.