One man was recovered alive and another man was found dead in the water west of North Whidbey on Thursday.

It’s unclear why the men were in the water and no boat has been found.

The Coast Guard is continuing to search the area.

Battalion Chief Chris Swiger with North Whidbey Fire and Rescue said the department’s rescue boat responded twice to a call for a water rescue Thursday.

At about 5 a.m., first responders received a report of a capsized boat west of Deception Pass.

North Whidbey Fire and the Swinomish Tribal Police responded, but turned the boats back after encountering very rough weather, with swells up to six to eight feet, Swiger said.

The Coast Guard then reported that the report was unfounded.

At about 1 p.m., the fire department received a report of an unresponsive man found in the water about two miles off Joseph Whidbey State Park.

The boaters who found him brought him to the beach; he was transported to Fort Nugent Park, where a helicopter picked him up and flew him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Swiger said.

Boats from North Whidbey Fire, Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue and East Jefferson Fire Rescue searched the area, but the search was suspended after about an hour, with concurrence from the Coast Guard, the battalion chief said.

The two Whidbey boats did a slow search as they returned, he said.

About a half hour later, a Coast Guard helicopter radioed that a body was spotted in the water.

East Jefferson Fire returned and brought the body to Cornet Bay, where the coroner pronounced him dead.

Petty Officer Trevor Lilburn, public affairs officer for Coast Guard Pacific Northwest, said the man who survived was wearing a life jacket, but the other man was not.

The man who survived is unable to communicate clearly, he said, so it’s still uncertain what occurred or what happened to their boat.

“There is no debris field, no indication of where it was,” he said.

He said the original call of a capsized boat is still considered unfounded.