A Gloucester family is mourning the loss of two fishermen who were found Saturday about 15 miles from port.
The U.S. Coast Guard recovered the bodies of Matteo Russo, 36, and his father-in-law John Orlando, 58, on Middle Bank, where the pair had been fishing since Friday, Jan. 2 in Russo’s 54-foot stern trawler, Patriot.
Debris from the vessel first clued the recovery team to the location of the accident. The stern trawler is still missing.
“That’s under investigation right now,” said Petty Officer Connie Terrell, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman.
The Patriot was equipped with a security system on board that notifies Russo’s family in the case of a fire. Terrell said Russo’s wife called the U.S. Coast Guard at 1:45 a.m. on Saturday to inform them of the emergency at sea.
The Coast Guard Cutter Flyingfish, a Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Cape Cod, and a 47-foot rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Gloucester searched together for the missing fishermen, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s web site.
Terrell said on Monday that she did not know whether the search was continuing for Russo’s vessel.
