RedactedNarrative: On February 25, 2018, at approximately 1500 hours I, Officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was on land patrol when I was dispatched to a vessel that had sunk with two people unaccounted for, in the area of Culbreath Bayou.  When I arrived on scene I was informed by Operator that there was nobody else on the vessel with him at the time that it sank, and that the people that were onboard earlier in the day had been dropped off at the location where he first noticed his vessel taking on water. He advised me that he had not collided with anything and did not know why his vessel began taking on water.  I asked Operator if he was certain that the plug was installed and he said yes.  Then Operator advised that he had been on the water since approximately 1230 hours which allowed for approximately 2.5 hours on the water without incident.  I could see the vessel from land and was unable to see any obvious signs of collision or any holes or breaks in the hull that would have allowed his vessel to take on water.  Operator advised that he was at a friend’s house when he first noticed some water in the vessel.  He was tied up to his friend’s dock and decided to try to get the vessel up on plane to drain the water that was on deck.   Operator informed me that he only was able to go a few hundred yards before realizing that the vessel was going to sink at which point he headed for a dock near the old Tampa Bay Marina.  The vessel then capsized and he swam approximately twenty feet to shore
  
  Once Operator informed me on what happened he advised me that he had been on the phone with his father and that his father was in the processes of calling commercial salvage.  On March 1st, 2018 I went back to the location and the vessel had been removed.  
  
  I contacted Operator on 3/2/2018 at approximately 1700 and he advised me that he was able to recover the vessel and found a tube for the baitwell with a break in it. I believe that the cause of the accident was likely an unnoticed breach in the water tight integrity of the tube for the baitwell and a faulty bilge pump, which resulted in the steady flow of water into the bilge with no means to dewater.  By the time that Operator realized that the vessel was taking on water it was likely too late for deck scuppers to be effective at dewatering the vessel.  When Operator attempted to get on plane the vessel’s diminished handling and performance characteristics, from the water inside the vessel, made the vessel unable to maintain buoyancy and eventually capsized.