The man, identified as 61-year-old Richard Shiroma, is an O'ahu resident, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Brooksann Anderson.

Shiroma's 23-foot boat, Bingo Too, was found beached with the engine running and the marlin tied to the back at 9 p.m. yesterday at Turtle Bay.

The Coast Guard and fire department were searching waters 15 miles north of Turtle Bay.

Shiroma had gone fishing yesterday and called a friend at about 2 p.m. to let him know he had caught a marlin, Anderson said.

Shiroma told his friend that he was pulling the fish in and would meet him in Kane'ohe, Anderson said.

But at about 6 p.m., the friend became concerned because Shiroma was overdue, and notified the Coast Guard.

"In overdue cases, we start by calling places on land just in case he went somewhere else and didn't call his friend. But that came up with negative results," Anderson said.

A Coast Guard helicopter began searching off Kane'ohe for Shiroma at about 8 p.m. About an hour later, a security guard at Turtle Bay called the Coast Guard to report a boat that had come ashore.

"They had found a boat that was beached and still running, but it had a marlin attached to the back, which is what the man had reported he caught," Anderson said. "That's the strangest thing about this case. The security guard actually had to turn the engine off."