A fisherman was rescued by members of the United States Coast Guard on Saturday night after he fell overboard in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Coast Guard watchstanders received a mayday call from the fishing vessel Resolute at around 9:30 p.m. when one of its crew members had fell overboard near MacMillan Pier.
Crew members from Resolute threw the man a life ring, which had a strobe light attached to it, but were unable to recover him.
The Coast Guard dispatched a motor lifeboat crew which arrived on scene at around 9:45 p.m, along with the Provincetown Harbor Master.
“The weather was nasty,” said Chief Petty Officer James Zerinskas. “The wind was around 28 knots, visibility was only a quarter mile, and air temperature was 27 degrees at the time.”
Despite the poor conditions, the harbormaster was able to locate the fisherman by seeing the flashing strobe attached to the life ring. The man was pulled into the boat by two Coast Guard crew members and then taken to ashore to be treated for hypothermia.
“He’s alive because of the life ring and strobe and the fast response of the Provincetown crews,” said Scott Backholm, the command duty officer at Sector Southeastern New England’s command center. “This demonstrates the importance of having a life ring with an operable strobe light.”
