By Paul W. Gillespie -- The Capital Natural Resources Police search the Severn River for a 24-year-old man who was hit by a boat after falling off a wake board.

The body of a 24-year-old man was found in the Severn River yesterday, one day after he was hit by a boat in an area described as dangerously narrow by area residents.

Daniel Eric Pemsler, of Arlington, Va., was found around 6 p.m. about 200 feet from the spot where he was wake boarding Saturday off Lakeland Point in Severna Park, said Capt. Adrian Baker, Natural Resoures Police spokesman.

Witnesses said Mr. Pemsler let go of the tow rope around 6 p.m. and was treading water when he was struck by another boat entering the area.

Although Mr. Pemsler went under and did not resurface after being hit, investigators believe the young man was wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident, Capt. Baker said. The flotation device was recovered from the water a few hours after the accident.

Police did not release the name of either boater involved in the mishap, citing the ongoing investigation.

Mr. Pemsler was on the boat with friends, who went to a home on the Severna Park side of the river after the accident.

Residents along the Severn said the stretch of water has become a dangerous spot, where boaters frequently tow waterskiers, floats or inner tubes. Another swimmer drowned less than a mile away a week earlier.

"This is the narrowest part of the river," said Bob Solan, a resident of Arden on the Severn. "It's just too narrow to ski and pull tubes in here."

He said the community petitioned unsuccessfully to have the speed limit in the area lowered a few years ago.

"Now maybe they'll make this a 6 mph zone," Mr. Solan said.

John Morrison of Crownsville was at the Indian Landing Boat Club on the south side of the river when police recovered Mr. Pemsler's body.

"There's so many boats and there's not much space," he said.

"These people just go crazy. It's very, very reckless."

Capt. Baker said the names of the boaters would not be released because the investigation is ongoing.

Capt. Baker said he believed the drownings were an "unfortunate coincidence."

"Safety is always an issue everywhere," he said.

Mr. Pemsler, who grew up in Miami, graduated from Wake Forest University in 2004 and was working at a research firm in Washington, D.C., according to his alma mater, Palmer Trinity School in Miami.

The search for Mr. Pemsler involved Natural Resources Police, fire boats from several departments and a Coast Guard crew. The various agencies looked for Mr. Pemsler Saturday night until heavy thunderstorms hit the area, then resumed the search yesterday at 6:20 a.m., Capt. Baker said.

Searchers used a 20-foot-long weighted and hooked line to search the river bottom between Lakeland Point and Arden on the Severn in Crownsville.

"The search area is probably not more than 100 to 150 feet wide," Capt. Baker said yesterday during the effort.

A Coast Guard boat watched over the area to keep other boats from coming into the search area. Later in the day, both the Anne Arundel and Charles County Fire Departments brought in boats equipped with side-scanning sonar that allowed them to search the bottom of the river.

On July 16, Luis Vargas, 16, of Annapolis was coming back from a fishing trip with his father and three other people when they stopped to take a swim

The teenager jumped off the boat and disappeared. His body was found near Kyle Point last Sunday. Police have not identified the boater involved in that accident.