Second Bay Area man dies diving for abalone

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has identified an abalone diver who died in the Point Arena area Saturday as 58-year-old Eric Stine of Vallejo.

Deputies responded at 7:12 p.m. Saturday to a report of a missing diver in the 45000 block of Lighthouse Road in Point Arena, sheriff’s Lt. Greg Stefani said.

Stine and another man began diving for abalone around 2:45 p.m.

The other diver finished as it got dark and last saw Stine in a cove about 300 yards north of the Point Arena Lighthouse, Stefani said.

Helicopters, boats and people on land searched for Stine into the night and continued the search Sunday, Stefani said.

Stine was found around 10 a.m. Sunday by the Mendocino County volunteer search and rescue team about a quarter-mile north of the lighthouse in the surf at Manchester State Beach, Stefani said.

Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Noyo River, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks and the Redwood Coast Volunteer Fire Protection District also participated in the search, Stefani said.

The death was the second involving an abalone diver in Mendocino County in less than a week. San Francisco resident Victor Segundo De Leon, 56, died on Nov. 22 off Cooks Beach near Gualala, according to the sheriff’s office.