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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – One body has been recovered in the search for more than three dozen people believed to be missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Florida, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In a news conference on Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard confirmed it recovered one body and is keeping up the search for 38 others after a solitary survivor was found clinging to the overturned hull.
The Coast Guard suspects it was a human smuggling venture.
Crews on at least four ships and five aircraft already scanned a vast area about the size of New Jersey.
Coast Guard Cutter Ibis’ crew searching for people missing from a capsized boat off the coast of Florida, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)
Capt. Jo-Ann F. Burdian said finding the other migrants alive is their highest priority.
“It is dire. The longer they remain in the water … exposed to the marine environment … with every moment that passes, it becomes much more dire and more unlikely” that survivors will be found, she said.
The Miami Coast Guard sector was alerted after a good Samaritan rescued a man clinging to the capsized 25-foot vessel approximately 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet on Tuesday morning.
Man clinging to capsized boat and escued by good Samaritan says 39 people were on the boat when it went down in bad weather over the weekend. Rescue teams are searching the water 45 miles off the Fort Pierce Inlet. (Source: U.S. Coast Guard)
He was hospitalized for symptoms of dehydration and sun exposure. The Coast Guard did not immediately describe the nationality of the survivor or the people lost at sea.
The surviving man told the U.S. Coast Guard he and 39 other people left from Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday night. Severe weather caused the vessel to capsize, and none of the passengers were wearing a life jacket.
The Coast Guard said a small craft advisory had been issued as a severe cold front blew through the dangerous passage on Saturday and Sunday, with winds up to 23 mph and swells up to 9 feet high. Tommy Sewell, a local bonefishing guide, said there were high winds and fierce squalls of rain on Sunday into Monday.