MIAMI (WSVN) - One person has died and another remains hospitalized after their boat sank near Miami Beach, Thursday night.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, one of the boaters died Friday morning.
Officials said there were three men on board, boating near 41st Street and Biscayne Bay when the water became rough.
“We understand that three men were on a 12-foot boat out here on the water, when the seas got a little rough and the boat started to sink,” said Miami Fire Rescue Capt. Ignatius Carroll.
One of the boaters was able to make his way to shore on his own and aided first responders in finding the other two men.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and the City of Miami Fire Department were called in to help, just before 10 p.m., Thursday.
“Having that initial point of what went under allows us to begin a search, and with the amount of resources we had out here, we were able to effect this rescue and recovery efforts with them all out of the water in just a little over an hour,” Carroll said.
The second man rescued was described as barely treading water when he was found. The third boater was located shortly before 11:30 p.m., in cardiac arrest.
The two men were both transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
On Friday, one of them succumbed to his injuries.
“None of these men had life vests on,” Carroll noted. “Not sure what other equipment they had on the boat but those are the types of devices and type of safety precautions you can take to save lives.”
Officials said MDFR assisted with their air rescue chopper, trying to locate the missing boater around the Julia Tuttle Causeway near Biscayne Boulevard. The westbound lanes of the causeway were closed to traffic as rescue crews searched for the boater. They have since reopened.
It’s unclear what caused the boat to sink.
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