Sharks suspected in injuries as 11 missing off Mexico

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Sunday for an estimated 11 people missing after a boat sank far off Mexico’s Baja California coast, where several survivors pulled from the water had injuries the agency said were consistent with shark bites.

The Coast Guard said crews rescued 16 people on Friday, Oct. 16, after a distress call came from a vessel whose occupants said it was sinking about 225 kilometres (140 miles) west of Ensenada, Mexico. The rescued were taken to hospitals in San Diego for care.

Survivors told officials 27 people had been aboard, The Associated Press reported, but the Coast Guard later said it did not have a confirmed total. All 16 people rescued were Mexican nationals, according to the AP.

“Several of the individuals rescued were suffering from severe injuries consistent with shark bites,” the Coast Guard said in a statement Saturday, adding that its crew gave life-saving first aid on the flight to San Diego. Later reports from the agency put the number of people with shark-bite injuries at three.

Coast Guard Lt. Santiago Tamburini told the AP that the Mayday call came at about 1 a.m. Friday and that a rescue helicopter reached the scene about two hours later. Pulling the 16 people from the water, with the help of a rescue swimmer, took about 90 minutes, he said.

The Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and the Mexican Navy searched more than 6,300 square kilometres (2,441 square miles) over a combined 89 hours before the search was suspended Sunday, the Coast Guard said. One Coast Guard cutter and two Mexican Navy ships were still in the area that day.

“Suspending a search is never easy, and this was an exceptionally dynamic case, far offshore, in rough weather,” Capt. Joseph Meuse, chief of staff for the Coast Guard Southwest District, said in a statement. He also said “human traffickers have zero regard for human life.”

The boat went down outside U.S. waters in an area the Coast Guard said is frequented by smugglers, as well as by fishing and pleasure boats. The agency said the case is under federal investigation. On Friday, it had not confirmed whether the vessel was part of a human smuggling operation, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its officers were not involved in the response.

Coast Guard official Charlie Valor said Saturday the agency responded even though the sinking happened outside American waters. “We were able to help, and that’s why we launched our assets,” he said, according to the AP.

Maritime smuggling off Southern California and Baja California has proven deadly before. At least three people died in May 2025 when a boat flipped about 56 kilometres north of the U.S.-Mexico border, and eight people were killed in 2023 when two boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog and one capsized in the surf, the AP reported.

The identities of the missing have not been released. Authorities have not said what caused the boat to sink.

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Sources: U.S. Coast Guard statements via NBC San Diego; The Associated Press via Al Jazeera and The Canadian Press.