A search for three missing canoeists has been called off after rescuers failed to find signs of them.

The canoeists, two men and a woman from the Lummi Reservation near Bellingham, Wash., set out from the Lummi Nation's Portage Point on April 28. A search for them around Portage Island and Lummi Island began the next day after friends reported them missing.

The Whatcom County Sheriff's Office identified the three as Guy Nutter, 44; Bonnie Robinson, 31; and Christopher Gust, 30.

All three had been attending a barbecue at Nutter's home the night of April 28. Friends and rescuers believe that Nutter, who had taken nighttime canoe trips on Bellingham Bay before, enlisted Robinson and Gust to come with him.

Extensive searches of the surrounding area have not turned up the canoe or any of the missing paddlers.

Nutter's friends have told authorities that the canoe was not in good shape at the time of the barbecue.