Fishermen lost off Maine coast presumed dead

BOSTON – Two fishermen are presumed dead after the Coast Guard on Friday suspended its search for a vessel that issued a distress signal early Thursday off the coast of southern Maine, officials said.

Wood debris and a distress beacon from the Lady Luck, a 52-foot groundfishing boat missing since 2 a.m. Thursday, were spotted floating off the shoals of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. But as of Friday afternoon, Coast Guard search teams had not found the Newburyport-based boat or its crew, skipper Sean Cone, 24, of North Andover, and Dan Miller, 21, of North Hampton, N.H.

“To suspend a search is one of the toughest decisions to make,” Rear Adm. Tim Sullivan said in a statement. “We grieve with the families of the Lady Luck’s crew and with New England’s fishing community.”

A coastal storm was approaching the search area that could generate 17-foot seas and 40-knot winds. A gale warning was posted for the Gulf of Maine.

“This second tragic loss in so short a time renews our commitment to work with the fishing community and our federal and state partners to identify and remove the hazards that imperil our fishermen,” Sullivan said.

The New Bedford-based fishing vessel Lady of Grace was found Sunday on the bottom of Nantucket Sound. One crew member’s body has been recovered, while the other three remain missing and presumed dead.

The accidents revived debate about the role tight regulations play in motivating winter fishermen to weather high seas and arctic conditions.

Jim Ford, Cone’s best friend and a fishing captain in Newburyport, said the Lady Luck was supposed to return Friday so Cone could take his fiancee to Disney World.

“With the way the weather is, being this cold, the chances [either man survived] don’t look good,” he said.

The vessel went missing two days after Coast Guard rescuers suspended a search for the four-member crew of the Lady of Grace, a 72-foot dragger that sank 11 miles north of Nantucket. A dive team found one body on Monday, but the entire crew is presumed dead.

The accidents revived a long-running discussion between some fishermen who argue strict catch quotas and limits on fishing days force crews to remain at sea in dangerous conditions and federal regulators who say the conservation guidelines do not penalize fishermen who opt to return to shore in winter weather.

Dan Connors, a Newburyport fisherman for more than three decades, said groundfishing boats that drag the ocean floor often quickly net thousands of pounds of cod and other fish that are protected under strict catch limits.

Crews then are forced to wait for days at sea – sometimes in rough conditions – without fishing, until they fall under daily quotas, he said.

“Other than throwing [fish] overboard, which is a waste, you have to stay out there,” Connors said. “The councils say one thing, the scientists say another, and the fishermen don’t know what they can catch.”

Fishermen shouldn’t blame regulations for the recent accidents until Coast Guard investigations are complete, said Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which helps regulate the nation’s fisheries.

“When we do have the facts, there is no doubt that this agency and the council will look at regulations and what impact they may have had,” she said.

Deaths at sea between Virginia and Maine decreased slightly between 1981 and 2000, while the number of ships and trip lengths both rose, according to a 2005 study by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The number of annual deaths has remained stable since 1994 when the government tightened regulations, the study found. Still, commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous jobs with 16 deaths per every 10,000 workers, a rate 16 times higher than police officers.

Peter Prybot, a fisherman who has worked the Gloucester docks for 47 years, said the growing practice of buying or leasing permits from other vessels may sway a captain’s decision to take more risks. Boat owners, most of whom get a maximum of about 24 or 48 fishing days annually, depending on where they fish, pay as much as $300,000 for the permits to add an extra month on the water, he said.

The practice may place added pressure for captains to make returns on the hefty permit price, Prybot said.

“The rules are really upping the ante because now it’s so expensive to fish out there,” he said.

Patricia Fiorelli, spokeswoman for the New England Fishery Management Council, a regional panel that helps craft federal fishing rules, said a variety of other factors, including market prices, boat conditions and crew availability, also influence captains’ decisions.

She said high market prices in winter entice some steely fishermen to venture out in rough seas.

“The fact is, the prices are higher in winter because fewer people risk it,” she said. “The risk takers may make a lot of money or they may lose all.”