State Police recover bodies of 2 missing fishermen from sunken fishing boat off Nantucket

NANTUCKET – State Police divers recovered the bodies Monday of two fishermen missing since their boat went down 10 miles off Nantucket on December 4.

The first recovery was at 10:30 a.m. the second at 4:20 p.m. The New Bedford-based Misty Blue was about 80-to-90 feet below the surface.

The missing men were previously identified as Michael Roberts, 44, and Jonatha Saraiva, 32, by the boat’s owner, Atlantic Cape Fisheries.

Two other crewmembers were rescued by a passing fishing boat in the moments after the boat sank earlier this month.

In a statement, State Police offered their “deepest condolences to their families,”

Court records show a Massachusetts crewmember filed a lawsuit against the Misty Blue less than a month before the vessel sank.

Matthew Lyons, of Fairhaven, filed the $1.5 million lawsuit against the ship and its New Jersey-based owner, Sea Harvest Inc., Nov. 8. Lyons claims he suffered a shattered heel due to crew negligence and the ships “unseaworthiness.”

Lyons’ attorney tells The Standard-Times the lawsuit is based on the legal definition of unseaworthy, meaning any unsafe condition on the vessel.

Atlantic Cape Fisheries, owner of the Misty Blue, says the lawsuit is unrelated to the vessel sinking earlier this month.

The Coast Guard, along with state and local agencies and good Samaritans searched for 42 asset hours saturating a 1,605 square nautical mile area after the sinking.



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