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Staff Report –
The glowing water that draws paddlers to Tomales Bay on dark summer nights turned deadly over the weekend, when two men in their 30s set out by canoe around midnight and never made it back to camp.
The pair launched from a group campsite late Saturday night, August 29, hoping to see the bay’s famous bioluminescence before camping at White Gulch Beach inside Point Reyes National Seashore. When they failed to return, a member of their group called Marin County Fire around 10:45 Sunday morning.
A multi-agency search followed, with the Coast Guard launching a boat from its Bodega Bay station while crews from Marin and Sonoma counties combed the water and shoreline. Both men were found by early afternoon. One was recovered near Toms Point and pronounced dead in Bodega Bay. The second, identified as 36-year-old San Francisco resident Casey Flynn Melia, was found near Hog Island and brought ashore at Sacramento Landing by the National Park Service.
The bioluminescent glow comes from microscopic dinoflagellates that flash when the water is disturbed, a spectacle that peaks on Tomales Bay between June and October. Kayak outfitters run guided night tours all season, but the bay’s northern reach near its mouth carries strong, unpredictable currents that have claimed lives before.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Coast Guard and park service are now investigating the cause of both deaths.
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Reporting from Active NorCal
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