Two dead in clam boat mishap off Massachusetts coast

Two people were killed after a fishing boat sank off Cape Cod in Massachusetts earlier this week.

The deceased victims, identified as an adult male and an adult female, were the only occupants of the fishing boat Seahorse when it sailed out of the town of Orleans to catch clams on the morning (local time) of Sunday, June 8.

One eyewitness said the boat was still engaged in fishing activities in Cape Cod Bay at around 14:00 on Sunday. However, two days then passed without any sign of the boat, 64-year-old captain Shawn Arsenault, or his girlfriend Felicia Daley.

Paul Arsenault told local CBS News affiliate WBZ that his brother Shawn said he would not return until he had caught the maximum allowable clam limit of 30 bags.

The search effort continued into Wednesday, June 11, when a recreational boater found the missing Seahorse in 25 feet (7.6 metres) of water off the town of Brewster.

The US Coast Guard fast response cutter USCGC William Sparling (pictured) and divers from the Massachusetts Environmental Police and the Massachusetts State Police later arrived on-scene. The divers then searched through the wreck and later found and recovered Arsenault's and Daley's deceased bodies.

The coast guard has begun an investigation to identify the events that led to the loss of the fishing vessel.