By Madilynne Medina, SFGate, San Francisco The Tribune Content Agency

Rescue crews are searching for two teenage brothers who went missing while duck hunting in a popular boating area near Lake Oroville over the weekend. Wesley Cornett, 17, and Andruw Cornett, 19, were reported missing Saturday while at the Thermalito Afterbay in Oroville, the Butte County Sheriff's Office said in a social media post. Deputies received a report of the accident at approximately 8:30 a.m., Megan McMann, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, told SFGATE.

The afterbay, located between Highway 70 and Highway 99, is part of the Oroville-Thermalito Complex; it allows use of motorized boats and jet skis, as well as swimming and hunting. The teenagers went missing after one of them overturned a kayak and the other swam into the water from the shore to try to find him, McMann told SFGATE.

Multiple law enforcement agencies across Northern California are looking for the brothers, including marine units from several nearby sheriff's offices and personnel from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Cal Fire.

As of 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, the sheriff's office said multiple boats were still searching for the boys. Members of the public have volunteered to help, but officials said they are not looking for assistance at this time. The rejection frustrated some members of the community, who have commented on the updates from the sheriff's office questioning why authorities are not accepting the help and suggesting people do their own searches of the afterbay anyway.

On the day of the boating accident, the water was 46 degrees and swells were 4 feet high, McMann said. Wind gusts were also 20 to 30 miles per hour. This water search is "even more difficult" than normal because of large vegetation underwater, some up to 10 feet tall, which limits divers' visibility, McMann said.

Brian Evans, the search-and-rescue coordinator for the sheriff's office, told KRCR-TV on Tuesday that the search is now a "recovery" effort.