2 dead after sailboat sinks in Rhode Island
By Nick Stoico Globe Correspondent,Updated May 11, 2021, 10:44 p.m.
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Two people are dead after their sailboat sank in Greenwich Bay off Warwick, R.I., on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management said.
Environmental police officers and the marine task force responded between 4:15 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and pulled a male and a female unresponsive from the water, according to Gail Mastrati, assistant to the director of DEM.
The victims, who have not been identified late Tuesday night, were brought to shore at the Oakland Beach Boat Ramp, Mastrati said.
The Providence Journal
WARWICK The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has released the names of the two people who died Tuesday in a boating incident off Warwick.
They were identified as Robert Puchta, 62, and Luann Cole, 66, both from Warwick.
Puchta and Cole were recovered unresponsive after the 23-foot sailboat they were in took on water and sank, the DEM said. The vessel has not been recovered. The DEM and the Warwick police and fire departments are still searching for the boat.
The DEM says it is still investigating the incident, which happened late Tuesday afternoon in Greenwich Bay.
DEM Environmental Police and the Marine Task Force responded to the two victims and pulled them from the water off Warwick, DEM spokeswoman Gail Mastrati said by email Tuesday.
The Providence Journal
A commercial shellfisherman s arrest Tuesday for digging quahogs at night in a closed waterway reminded a veteran environmental police officer of days gone by.
In the 1970s and into the 1980s, it wasn t unusual for officers to find themselves chasing shellfishermen who were trying to make an extra buck and breaking the law by shellfishing at night, said Daniel White, a captain with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management s law enforcement division. It s more of a rare occurrence now, White said.
That could be in part because development has pushed closer to the water, and it s difficult to find dark, secluded places to poach shellfish away from the prying eyes of potential witnesses, he said.
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