A decomposed body was found in a shallow section of Lake Lanier on Wednesday, authorities said.

Deputies responded after 1 p.m. Wednesday to the call of a body found near Sunrise Cove Marina off of Flat Creek Road in Gainesville. The call to dispatchers came from a passerby in the area.

“The body appears to be that of a white male badly decomposed,” Hall County Sheriff’s Office Sr. Sgt. Kiley Sargent wrote in a news release. “The body was transported to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office where an autopsy will be performed.”

Investigators hiked down a wooded embankment around 3 p.m. Wednesday to the scene, a shallow section of Lake Lanier.

Officers boarded Marine Rescue 1 and inspected a boat nearby. Members of the dive team also responded around 4 p.m. to the area.

The cause of death is not known, and the man’s name has not been released yet.

The incident remains under investigation.