Coast Guard Petty Officer Crystalynn Kneen said Friday that the questioning of a crew and inspection of a commercial vessel in Houston is continuing in connection to the sinking of the Mandy Ness fishing boat 10 miles off Long Beach Island on Jan. 10.
Barnegat Light fisherman Jim Mears, 53, died when the boat capsized and he could not escape the flooded cabin. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer recovered Mears’ body in the cabin. Mears’ crewmate Trevor Horan, 22, escaped the capsizing alive after stripping out of his clothes in the 44 degree water and swimming to safety.
Kneen, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said the crew of the unidentified commercial vessel in Houston is cooperating with the investigation, but the completion of the questioning and inspection may take a few days.
As a result of their initial investigation, Coast Guard officials found that another vessel was in the vicinity at the time of the Mandy Ness’ sinking.
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One day after the capsizing, Coast Guard personnel from Sector Hampton Roads boarded the commercial vessel that is being inspected off the coast of Virginia, to determine whether the boat was in the vicinity of the Mandy Ness when the incident occurred.
Pete Dolan, of Stafford Township, a 27-year fishing boat captain, responded to the scene that night in an attempt to rescue Mears and Horan. Dolan told The Press that he saw that a commercial vessel was in the vicinity of the capsizing on his computer tracking system.
“If it’s the boat we thought it was, it was the Pacific Jewel and that boat was on its way to Texas,” Dolan said.
The Coast Guard declined to identify the vessel on Friday.
After knowing that his friend, Mears, perished in the capsizing, Dolan said the Coast Guard’s questioning of the crew and inspection of the vessel gives him some relief.
“It’s awesome that they’re inspecting this. You can’t just let something like that go. You have to get to the bottom of this because Jimmy died,” Dolan said.
“I mean, I went fishing yesterday for the first time since it happened and I was really uneasy. I came back in at 1:30 a.m. I was extra careful, but extra paranoid I would say,” he said.
Meanwhile, the wreckage of the Mandy Ness has not been salvaged yet. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Cynthia Oldham said that a few days after the sinking the Coast Guard was unable to get to the capsized boat.
“I was out there on the helicopter when it happened and it was there and marked with a buoy. But when they went back on their return trip it wasn’t there. It may have sunk. It is still being searched for,” Oldham said.
Contact Donna Weaver:
609-226-9198
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