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A fishing influencer who was missing at sea after issuing a mayday call was found dead days later in Mexican waters, according to his family.
The body of Mikey Rijavec, best known for his “Fish and Sips” YouTube channel, was recovered on Sunday in the waters near San Cristobal, his brother Gregory said in an update on GoFundMe to assist the search for the influencer.
Rijavec was last heard from on the afternoon of Nov. 11 when a mayday call was made from his boat as he fished off the coast of Baja California.
He was fishing eight miles off the coast when he made the mayday call. Fellow anglers tried to help him with his reported engine trouble over the phone, but the call suddenly ended, NBC San Diego reported.
“As difficult as it is to accept this, we are grateful that it provides us some closure. As we begin to process and reflect on what has happened over the last several days, it is clear what was at the core of the search for Mikey: love,” Gregory Rijavec wrote in a statement for the fundraiser.
“Everyone poured everything into finding Mikey, because whether they knew him or not, they knew a son, a brother, a friend, a fisherman, a fellow human needed help,” he said.
The US Coast Guard and Mexican Navy launched a full-out search for Rijavec after the harrowing mayday call was issued.
His turquoise boat was discovered floating upside down five miles from the coast on Thursday.
The US Coast Guard had stopped searching for Rijavec by Friday, leaving it to Mexican authorities, according to a statement sent to NBC San Diego.
“What could have happened? Oh my god, it’s endless,” Phil Friedman, a friend helping in the search, told the outlet.
“It could be foul play. You never know, it’s something that happens at sea sometimes,” he speculated. “It could be a whale, it could be a shark.”
The events leading up to Rijavec’s death are not immediately clear.
The US Coast Guard did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Rijavec, a skilled angler, had over 20,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel filled with footage of impressive catches made from his solo skiff.
The comments on his latest Instagram post have been flooded with friends and family mourning the expert fisherman.
