HAMMOND – One man died and another suffered severe hypothermia a few hours into the Buoy 10 salmon fishing season on Aug. 1.

Keith Watkins, 72, died when his boat capsized while he was fishing near the buoy. His companion, Joseph White, 79, was in intensive care at Columbia Memorial Hospital after the accident.

The two Woodburn, Ore., men had left the Hammond Marina at about 7 a.m. and had begun trolling with long fishing lines, said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Brewbaker. Soon, however, the lines became tangled in the boat’s propeller, which stalled the engine.

“When you lose propulsion, you lose stability,” Brewbaker said.

In the 2-to 4-foot swells, the 16-foot Reinell boat capsized, Brewbaker said. The waves are typical, but the 2-foot wind chop was strong and that could have contributed to the capsized vessel, said Clatsop County Sheriff Senior Marine Patrol Deputy Willie Nyberg.

The men both wore personal flotation devices and stayed with the boat, which Brewbaker said is the right thing to do. But as the cold set in, the men separated and Watkins drowned.

A man fishing from Clatsop Spit reported a capsized boat with a body face-down in the water, Brewbaker said.

When Coast Guard officials and deputies arrived, Brewbaker said he heard a rustling in the bushes and White crawled out. He was suffering from severe hypothermia after swimming to shore and curled up on the ground to preserve his body heat, Brewbaker said.

The Coast Guard responded to several other minor cases on opening day of people losing power, losing steering or becoming lost in the fog. Brewbaker said boaters should call immediately if they have problems on the water because minor cases quickly escalate to more serious cases.

“This is not a lake,” he said. “This is the Columbia River bar.”

Last year seven people died in the area of the Columbia River during the Buoy 10 season, Nyberg said. This year, the predicted 687,000 Chinook salmon run will draw thousands of fishermen to the river, whose bar is considered as one of the most dangerous in the world.

In the second week of the Buoy 10 opener, rescue action continued unabated, with passengers being plucked from an overturned fishing vessel over the past weekend, in addition to the usual requests for assistance with malfunctioning engines and other difficulties.