The "majority" of the 33 passengers and one crew member who died when their boat caught fire during a scuba expedition in Southern California "appeared to have been from the Santa Cruz, San Jose, Bay Area region," according to authorities speaking Tuesday.
Five crew members survived the fire that broke out early Monday morning on the Conception, which had been chartered by Worldwide Diving Adventures for an excursion over Labor Day weekend.
The boat sank from the blaze.
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Officials have given up searching for additional survivors and are instead trying to recover the bodies of those who perished near the shore of Santa Cruz Island, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.
"Certainly our hope is that we would be able to penetrate the wreckage today" and "stabilize it" to conduct an investigation and recover any remains left in the boat, Brown said.
Crew members have submitted written statements about what transpired.
There is no indication that the fire was preceded by an explosion, authorities said.