New Jersey Scuba Diving

MANASQUAN, N.J. -- A 45-foot chartered fishing boat with 22 people aboard capsized in 6-foot waves and sank Sunday in choppy waters off New Jersey, officials said. Five men drowned and three others were missing and presumed dead.

Fourteen people were rescued after the fishing boat Joan La Rie sank Sunday morning about 8 miles off the coast of Pt. Pleasant, said Coast Guard rescue crews. The Coast Guard suspended their search at about 7:30 p.m. 'It's just too cold to continue the search,' Coast Guard Petty Officer Jerry Snyder said Sunday. 'It's unlikely that there are any survivors.'

'We're looking for three people that may still be in the water,' Coast Guard Petty Officer Gregory Creedon said. 'We have the names of those we think are missing, but are not releasing them at this time.

'The boat was slammed by a wave which tilted it over and it sank very quickly,' said Creedon. 'Rescue crews reached the scene about 15 minutes after we got the call at 11:30 a.m.' Creedon said a small craft advisory was in effect when the boat capsized in water 'a couple of hundred feet deep.' The water temperature was in the mid-50s, with waves up to 6-feet and winds between 15 and 25 knots.

A distress call was sent to the Coast Guard by a passing Brazilian cargo vessel, the Itape. Four patrol boats and three helicopters were immediately dispatched, Creedon said. Two of the survivors, James Mizzetti, of Middletown, N.Y., and his 15-year-old son, James Jr., were treated for exposure at Point Pleasant Hospital. Both clung to the side of the boat for about two hours before being lifted from the chilly waters by a lifeboat from the Itape, the elder Mizzetti told reporters at the hospital.

'It was pandemonium. Nobody really knew what to do,' Mizzetti said. 'The thing that was foremost in my mind was to get him ( my son ) out ( of the boat ).' Mizzetti said passengers on the boat, which left Point Pleasant at 6 a.m., were just finishing up a full day of fishing when the boat capsized. 'The swells were exceptionally high,' said Mizzetti, who added that the victims were unable to unfasten two life rafts aboard the Joan La-Rie. Mizzetti said the victims tried to stay together before they were separated 'quite a distance' by the waves.

Bobbe Nicholetti, a spokeswoman for the Jersey Shore Hospital in Neptune, said five people were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, including the ship's captain. Coast Guard officials said the captain also was the boat's owner. They have been unable to determine so far how many of those on board may have been crew members. 'Apparently, all of the people knew each other,' Creedon said of the passengers.

The five dead were identified as Charles Housley, 55, of Ridgewood, the ship's captain, Walter Meisenbacher, 55, of Bricktown, Thomas Nolan, 55, of Southfield, N.Y., Nicholas Sanpopietro, 61, of Greenwood Lake, N.Y. and Frank Jackson, 38, of Middletown, N.Y. In critical condition at Jersey Shore was John Sullivan, of Hamburg, N.Y., said Ms. Nicholetti, who added the victims all died from 'submersion and saltwater drowning-cardiac arrest.'

Of 13 taken to Point Pleasant Hospital, five were admitted and eight others were treated for exposure and released, hospital spokeswoman Noel Bechtold said. Ms. Bechtold identified those admitted as John Gorman Sr., 39, guarded condition, John Gorman Jr., 7, critical but stable condition, James Graham, 53, Kevin Brady, 16, and Ronald Hoffman, 40, all in satisfactory condition and all from Greenwood Lake, N.Y.

-- UPI