Local agencies report incidents of bodies lost to sea after week of dangerous surf.

A series of incidents involving bodies lost to the sea has been reported along the Monterey Bay shoreline, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

On Sunday, Dec. 29 at 11am, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the Monterey Bay Whale Watch tour group of a body that was seen floating in the water roughly four miles from the coastline of Marina State Beach.

“Our station launched a 47-foot motor life boat as an agency's assistance request to recover a presumed dead body a couple miles out from the Salinas River mouth,” says Lt. Bryce Laster, Executive Officer of the Monterey station Coast Guard.

However, they were unable to locate a body.

Six days prior, on Monday, Dec. 23, two other incidents were reported.

One was reported at 2pm to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, which received a report of a man who had been swept off a rock along 17-Mile Drive near Point Joe, after being hit by a sneaker wave.

Efforts were made by Cal Fire, California State Parks and the Coast Guard to locate the individual, to no avail. 

“I was talking to Cal Fire, who said the waves were anywhere from 30 to 50 feet high,” Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Andy Rosas says.

The other incident, which occurred about two hours earlier, was reported to the Marina Police Department and involved another individual swept out to sea by large waves at Marina State Beach.

Bystanders attempted to help him to no avail, and emergency responders from various agencies—including Marina PD, the Coast Guard and California Highway Patrol—searched by land and by sea, but called off their search after about two hours due to worsening conditions. 

“There is no way I would have put divers in the water based on those conditions,” Rosas say. ”It had turned from a rescue effort to a recovery effort. The weather conditions were not conducive to safely look for these individuals.” 

That same week, several news outlets reported that a man from Watsonville died after being crushed by debris when massive surf shattered the end of the Santa Cruz pier.

Rosas says there is no way to confirm whether the body spotted by the whale-watching group was connected to either of the incidents where people were swept out to sea on Dec. 23, during a week of major swells along the Central California coast.

The waves were so large, in fact, that the National Weather Service issued a high surf warning for all Monterey County beaches and coastline, along with a small craft advisory.

"There is a lot of water moving out there, and we are just beginning to see the impacts," the National Weather Service wrote in an update at 2pm on Monday, Dec. 23.

While active search efforts by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office have been suspended, anyone who spots human remains is encouraged to call 9-1-1 to report it for investigation by the Sheriff’s Office and local law enforcement.