KEY LARGO, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard says it pulled 176 Haitians from an overloaded wooden sailing vessel as it approached the Florida Keys.
The rescue effort unfolded Monday after a Customs and Border Protection crew spotted the 60-foot sailboat near the Bahamas with a crowd on board.
According to a release, the Cutter Paul Clark was diverted to help the boat and its passengers. When it arrived, the Coast Guard says the boat was "grossly overloaded" and the crew gave personal floatation devices to ensure the safety of those on board.
The wooden boat did not have "basic lifesaving equipment" or navigation lights, according to the Coast Guard.
The Cutter Paul Clark and the Coast Guard station in Islamorada worked with federal, state and local law enforcement officers to take the people into custody.
Ten had to be treated at a hospital for dehydration.
Coast Guard crews have already rescued 557 Haitians three months into the current fiscal year, a pace that's up sharply from the year before.
The Coast Guard says in all of the fiscal year 2021, 1,527 Haitian migrants were rescued.
"It is extremely dangerous to navigate the Florida Straits in an unseaworthy vessel, especially off the Florida Keys where the water is extra treacherous with shoals and reefs," Chief Warrant Officer James Kinney, command duty officer, Sector Key West, said in a statement. "Thanks to the quick coordination among so many different agencies, no lives were lost during this interdiction."
According to the Coast Guard, crews "routinely return persons interdicted at sea aboard unseaworthy vessels to their country of origin to prevent the loss of life at sea."
10 Tampa Bay's Claire Farrow contributed to this report.
