Five razor clam diggers found dead in Cook Inlet had their boat swamped with water because of rough seas due to high winds and tide, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

The five men were identified late Friday. Killed in the boating accident were Roberto Ramirez, Jose Sandoval, Avelino Garcia, Jose Revera and Ramon Valdiva, the Associated Press reported.

Sandoval and Revera were from southern California. Garcia and Valdiva were from Oregon, but troopers had not yet determined the home residence of Ramirez, according to reports.

All five men were contractors for Oregon-based Pacific Seafood. Company president Frank Dulcich said Thursday that  the contract clammers had been "a part of the Pacific Seafood family" a number of years.

The boating disaster was the most tragic in Cook Inlet in a quarter century. 

Dulcich, in tears Thursday, also described it as "the most tragic event in the company's 70-year history."

Death by hypothermia is likely given the time people were in the water. The water temperature in Cook Inlet at this time is about 41 degrees. People normally stay conscious for only about 30 to 60 minutes when immersed in water that cold, and they are usually dead from the cold within one to three hours. 

Rough seas have sunk other skiffs and killed commercial fishermen in Cook Inlet. Mike and Gilbert Moerlein, sons of a well-known Anchorage family, headed out of the Kenai River in a setnet skiff in 1984. It swamped in stormy seas and both men died, along with their brother's college roommate.

The latest accident is the worst since the Moerleins perished, and it lacks an obvious cause. The Coast Guard reported that the skies were clear when rescuers arrived on the scene after getting the call of a boat in trouble. The winds were blowing only 10 to 15 mph. And the seas were but 2-foot high, which would present little problem for a 20-foot skiff with someone knowledgable at the helm.

Coast Guard logs distress call from Polly Creek

It all started Tuesday, when the U.S. Coast Guard reported it got a distress call from the Pacific Alaska Shellfish plant manager in Nikiski reporting a company-owned 22-foot aluminum skiff with five employees aboard missing near Polly Creek. 

Nikiski is a small community about 60 miles southwest of Anchorage on the south shore of the Inlet. Polly Creek is an area rich in razor clams about 45 miles southwest of Nikiski on the north shore of the Inlet.

Dulcich described the dead contractors as "experienced, independent contractors," adding, "While not direct employees of our company, these men have worked with us year after year and we consider them close friends and part of our company’s family."

Commercial clam diggers must be licensed with the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. There are only 30 people licensed to dig commercially and all but two of them are Alaskans. Last year only about 20 of the permit holders, all Alaskans, reported working the beaches during a season that runs from May into July.