MORRO BAY, Calif. -- The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched officers by air and sea Tuesday afternoon to investigate a runaway fishing vessel apparently moving through the ocean 130 miles southwest of San Francisco with nobody aboard after the owner's body was found in the water earlier in the day.

At about 11:35 a.m., a fishing vessel, the Miss Allison, found the body of a 46-year-old man attached to a crab pot floating about 40 miles north of Morro Bay and reported it to the Coast Guard, according to Petty Officer Levi Read.

Investigators from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office located the victim's wife, and learned that he is the owner of the Axel, a 39-foot fishing boat out of Morro Bay, according Read.

A Coast Guard aircraft located the Axel and was hovering above the vessel Tuesday afternoon to keep watch, Read said. Officers in a patrol boat were also on the way to the location from Yerba Buena Island.

The Axel was moving at a slow speed of about 2.5 knots, or nearly 3 miles per hour, Read said.

While there is no evidence anyone else was aboard the vessel, the Coast Guard is searching the area by air just to be safe, Read said. A preliminary investigation did not indicate anything suspicious about the death he said.

The San Luis Obispo County sheriff-coroner's office has not released the victim's identify.