A man drowned Thursday and two men were reported missing yesterday in separate fishing accidents on the Chesapeake Bay in eastern Baltimore County, police said.
Rescue crews spent hours searching the Gunpowder River and Chesapeake Bay yesterday for two men who were reported to have been aboard a boat that was found abandoned on Carroll Island.
George Mercer, chief of public affairs at Aberdeen Proving Ground, said that fishermen who had been crabbing with the two men called police about 10:30 a.m. yesterday to report their companions missing. APG's Wildlife and Marine Division searched for them and found the men's boat beached on Carroll Island with its motor running.
Officials had not found the men or released their identities yesterday afternoon.
On Thursday, a Bel Air man drowned while trying to untangle his boat from a line of crab pots near Hart-Miller Island, police said.
Ernest L. Knopp, 71, of the 2800 block of Runyan Lane had been fishing about 2 miles northwest of the island Thursday when his boat became caught in crab lines, police said. His body was found in the bay and reported to police about 2 p.m., said Heather Lynch, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Natural Resources.
