Diver Down !

A little after 5:00pm I was heading to the breakwater to try to get some sunset photos. As I was heading there I learned that a 49 year old diver was down. He hadn't surfaced in over two and a half hours for what was suppose to be a one hour dive. He had about 4 hours of air in his tank. The vacinity of the dive was near the sunk tanker Chester A. Poling which went down in 1977. The wreck at 80' down is a popular dive site here on the North Shore. The Coast Guard is conducting a full scale search well into the night.

5/20/09 :
I just received word that the diver's body was found about 50 yards from the wreck site. The Gloucester Times is reporting the diver is Paul Blanchette of Dracut,Ma. He was known to be a skilled deep sea diver who was one of the first to explore the steamship Portland 460' down on Stellwagen Bank. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Paul Blanchette.