The body of a man who went overboard June 27th south of Kent Island has been found near Poplar Island.
41-year-old Kevin Charles Yates, Sr., from Queen Anne’s County, is the 11th person killed in a boating-related incident so far this year in Maryland.
Several agencies sent helicopters to search for Yates.Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) say Yates was riding on a friend’s 40-foot cabin cruiser when the boat owner says Yates went below deck and never returned. After an hour traveling between Kent Narrows and Herring Bay, the boat owner realized Yates was likely lost overboard, and called authorities. It happened around 2:45 p.m., when winds were reported at 25 knots with four to five foot seas.
The Coast Guard, NRP, and Maryland State Police all launched helicopters to search for Yates, along with multiple boat crews including the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. The fire department and NRP recovered his body Monday.
NRP tells Bay Bulletin that a criminal investigation into Yates’ death is underway, as is customary with all boating deaths.
2018 has been an especially dangerous year on the water so far. At the start of July, there have already been 11 deaths in Maryland, compared to nine in all of 2017. And this year is on pace to exceed the Bay’s worst year in two decades. That was in 2015, when 21 people died in Maryland boating incidents. At this time that year, there had only been eight deaths so far.
NRP spokesperson Candy Thomson says, “This is shaping up to be a particularly deadly year because traditionally July and August are our two most dangerous months.” And those months still lie ahead.
The common thread through almost all of the fatalities is that victims were not wearing life jackets. NRP continues to urge boaters to wear a life preserver.
-Meg Walburn Viviano
