GARIBALDI, Ore. (AP) - A crew member of a crabber returning to port in foul weather suffered fatal injuries when the boat wrecked at the tricky entrance to Tillamook Bay, the Coast Guard said Friday.

High seas and winds rolled the 58-foot, steel-hulled Starrigavan three times and tossed it onto the south jetty of the bay Thursday night, survivors told the Coast Guard.

Although a helicopter crew lowered a rescue basket to the boat and pulled Kenneth Venard, 50, of Newport off the boat, he died later in the hospital.

Three other crew members were also raised in baskets, suffering from hypothermia, the Coast Guard said, and one remained hospitalized Friday afternoon.

At least 16 people have died near the bar since 2002, including 11 in a 2003 accident involving the charter fishing boat Taki-Tooo.

A Coast Guard helicopter commander, Lt. Eric Smith, said that the Starrigavan had made it just inside the bar, a buildup of sand and mud that results when a river empties into the sea and loses the energy that allows it to carry sediment.

The bar is known for its treacherous conditions, and such an accident didn't surprise Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson, who has investigated a number in recent years.

"You get sideways and get hit by a couple of waves, and that's all it takes," he said.

Coast Guard officers said they were told at least three 20-foot waves hit the boat.

Although the seas were reported at less than that, 11 feet, with winds at 17 miles an hour, "it's possible they were hit by rogue waves," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Shawn Eggert.

Eggert said that at the time of the wreck, the bar was closed to recreational boaters and uninspected passenger vessels, but open to commercial fishing vessels such as the Starrigavan.

Smith, who led the rescue party, said a Coast Guard rescue swimmer helped to get the crew into the basket, one at a time.

"It was really hairy for our swimmer," he said. "Sometimes he would have to hang vertically from the gunwales."

After the crew and the swimmer were hoisted away, the ocean continued to toss and batter the boat.

Coast Guard officers said it was on the rocks of the jetty Thursday night, but it was missing Friday morning when their environmental investigators went to take a look at it. Later, a helicopter determined that it was submerged, and still later it turned up on the opposite side of the jetty from where it had been thrown up the night before, Coast Guard officers said.

The survivors were the skipper, Kirk Opheim, 23, of Burlington, Wash., and crew members Gregory Phillips, 23, of Siletz, and Sam Johnson, 39, of Seattle, Anderson said. Johnson remained hospitalized at midday Friday, the Tillamook County General Hospital.

Federal registration documents listed the Starrigavan's owner as Fire Island Fisheries of Kirkland, Wash. A man who answered the phone there Friday refused to speak for the record or to identify himself.

Lt. Adam Birst, senior investigative officer for the Coast Guard in Portland, said community meetings and outreach programs had resulted in some improvements in navigating the bar. He said pollution control experts were at the scene assessing potential problems such as spilled fuel. 

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)