Missing boaters found safe after multi-agency search

St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office personnel helped find three missing boaters safe Tuesday afternoon on an island in Iberia Parish after their boat sank, according to a sheriff's office news release.
At 11:06 a.m. Tuesday, the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office received a report that three boaters had failed to return after launching their boat from the Quintana landing yesterday afternoon.
Deputies learned that a husband and wife and their friend, all from the Lafayette area, left the landing at Cypremort Point at 3:15 p.m. Monday. The St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office Marine Division launched a search and rescue operation along with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Division, the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, and United States Coast Guard.
Using seven search vessels and two search aircraft, the agencies searched an estimated 30 miles of coastline as well as East and West Cote Blanche Bay, Vermillion Bay, and Atchafalaya Bay. Working with information provided by a relative of one of the boaters, a St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office Marine Division search team located all three of the missing boaters on Marsh Island in Bayou Blanc in Iberia Parish.
The group became stranded there after their boat took on water and sank. The boaters were found safe just before 4 p.m. The search team transported them back to the landing where they were offered medical attention, the release said. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Division is conducting the investigation into the incident.