Body of missing fisherman is recovered

A body recovered from the surf Friday in Corona del Mar has been positively identified as Fremont resident Sean Shungfei Yeh, who has been missing and presumed drowned since he and a companion were swept off a jetty by high surf.

Yeh, 53, was seen fishing with Yi Ni Kwong, 49, of Irvine on the east jetty Tuesday morning when unexpectedly big waves apparently knocked the two into the water. A search that stretched to Laguna Beach on Tuesday was called off after about three hours because the pair were presumed drowned in the strong currents and large swell, authorities said.

On Friday, Newport Beach police received several 911 calls around 11:15 a.m. about a body in the surf near Inspiration Point, within sight of the jetty. About an hour and fifteen minutes later, two lifeguards with flotation devices recovered a body from the water in a rocky area just below a lookout point.

Dozens of passersby watched the recovery, some with cameras and binoculars.

The body was taken by boat to the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol headquarters on Bayside Drive, and later identified as Yeh through fingerprints, Newport Beach Police spokesman Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Kwong has not been found, but “there’s a hope that the second body is just as close and it’ll wash up soon so we can identify it,” Sailor said. Authorities are continuing to search for her body, he said.

Friday’s pleasant weather drew crowds to stroll along Ocean Boulevard or stop on the beach below, and many paused at the scene of lifeguards, Harbor Patrol boats and police working on the recovery as news cameras recorded the event. The body was mostly submerged and little of it could be seen as it was loaded onto the boat.

Among those who spotted Yeh’s body was 9-year-old Liam Watson, who said he noticed something near the rocks after police and other safety workers came to the scene.

“I was following the police and wondering what was happening,” he said, adding that he saw what looked like the upper part of a shirtless body floating in the water.

The rocks and rip currents made the recovery difficult for lifeguards, Sailor said. “With the strong rip currents and the rocks you get that real murky water,” he said, so lifeguards couldn’t dive with tanks and had to wait for intervals between sets of waves.

Authorities first believed strong currents may have carried the bodies down the coast, but Sailor said they could have been caught by rocks or vegetation.

Corona del Mar resident Maria Puscas, who watched some of the recovery efforts Friday, said she hopes the other body is found to bring closure to the families.

“It already happened — there’s nothing you can do to rescue” the victim, she said.