Coast Guard search for missing MS Coast fisherman has covered 1,000 square nautical miles

Editor’s note: The body of Missing shrimper Richard Kopszywa was found Tuesday morning.

Three boats, a helicopter and a plane for the U.S. Coast Guard are racing this week to search the waters off the Mississippi Coast for a 75-year-old man whose fishing boat authorities found empty on Sunday.

The search continued Monday afternoon, with no luck yet.

The mission began Sunday morning after the man’s wife called the Coast Guard, said William Winston, an ensign at the Sector Mobile Public Affairs Office. Winston said the woman reported her husband goes shrimping for days at a time but checks in each morning. On Sunday, Winston said, “he didn’t check in when she anticipated that he would.”

The search started five miles off the coast of Biloxi where authorities found the empty boat, the Coast Guard’s 8th District said on social media. It had searched 1,032 square nautical miles for a combined 37 hours as of 4 p.m. Monday, Winston said.

Crews from the Coast Guard Station Gulfport, Coast Guard Cutter Stingray and Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans are searching with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Coast Guard said.

“We’re continuing to search,” Winston said Monday morning. “We don’t have any other details at this point.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 9:36 AM.