Updated

The executive director of the California-based environmentalist group Rainforest Action Network has died in a swimming accident at a beach near Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta.

The spokesman for Puerto Vallarta municipal police says Rebecca Tarbotton was swimming at a beach about a half hour north of Puerto Vallarta when she was caught by a wave and tossed around.

Spokesman Adan Leyva said Friday that paramedics tried to revive her after she was brought ashore, but she was dead by the time she reached the hospital.

The accident occurred Wednesday.

In a statement published on its website Friday, the San Francisco, California-based Rainforest Action Network says Tarbotton was 39. It says she was born in Vancouver, British Colombia.