Sheriff's officials identify man found dead on boat off Morro Bay

A man was found dead attached to a crab pot Tuesday on a boat off Morro Bay, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

A person on board a fishing boat named Miss Allison reported finding 47-year-old David Allen Kubiak of Los Osos attached to a crab pot around 11:35 a.m. The crab pot is registered to the fishing vessel Axel, a 39-foot boat home ported in Morro Bay, Coast Guard officials said.

Sheriff's spokesman Rob Bryn said it appears Kubiak fell from the vessel sometime overnight. His body was discovered tied to a fishing buoy at 10:40 this morning.

The "crab" pot mentioned, was in actuality a bouy, though one he used for crabbing during the season, was at the time being used in conjunction with trapping spot prawns. I know this first-hand, knew the man, know his family, worked with him in the past (he even made a fill-trip on another boat I was with, this past winter).

He was fishing offshore of San Simeon. Dock rumor is the boat was headed away from land at 2 1/2 knots (I don't know which heading, it could be any of a wide arc of angles) but the Coast Guard had a Cutter on the way to stop, and I assume, retrieve the boat.

The boat bears the name of his maternal grandfather Axel.

Please, no impolite questions...

He is survived by both parents, two siblings, wife, son, step-daughter, and more friends than most any other individual I know, has.

The story I heard was that it looked like he tied himself to it. That, and the related report that the boat was still in gear and traveling, indicates to me that he was 'tending' to the gear when he went over. Knowing the gear he fished, other than perhaps falling over when attempting to grab a buoy, it might also be slightly possible that some stray turn of line next to the buoy have gotten him when he was setting the gear back out, or it's also theoretically possible he became somehow entangled elsewhere in the gear while setting it out, went over but got loose enough to swim to the buoy, once it finally made it over...

I know the pot tethers were tied into the groundline, (12-15 to a string) and that he would have to pick the pots up individually, tossing them one by one in turn, with a weighted end already sinking, when setting. Typical fishing depth would be 100 fathoms or more. Talking it over with him about a month ago, I was a bit more concerned with that part of the operation, the setting of it, him doing it by himself and all. The subject of the danger of even the mere "picking up a buoy" by himself came to mind also...but he did crab by himself, too, so snagging a buoy wasn't new to him, but still, he had to drive the boat, and "work the deck" alone at the same time. Things happen.

Recently, he had broke off one of his strings of traps, and had been planning on grappling for it. I don't know if he had successfully done that on his next previous trip out or not.

Clues towards how it more precisely happened might be found in part, on the boat itself, once it is brought in. But one will need to know what they are looking at. He has a surviving cousin that is with the sheriff's dept, who used to fish, so he might be able to help, as far as helping pave the way for the another surviving cousin who still fishes, along with the surviving brother who knows the boat, to take a look. I don't remember 100%, but I think David would use a boat-hook to snag a buoy, rather than use two floats and throw a hand-grapple. If so, then a missing boat-hook could be some additional indication of exactly "how" may it occurred.

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