Divers Continue To Search Long Lake For Missing Boater

Divers from the Maine Warden Service on Thursday resumed their search for a 19-year-old man from Hollis Center who is presumed dead after falling from a boat on Long Lake Wednesday.

The man was a passenger on a pontoon boat that his family and a family from Texas had rented, Cpl. John MacDonald, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service, said in a news release on Wednesday.

Passengers told game wardens the victim fell overboard and went beneath the watercraft. They said they could see the man floating in the water, but then he quickly disappeared beneath the surface. MacDonald said the man was not wearing a life jacket.

Divers from the warden service and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office were unable to locate the victim's body on Wednesday.

They resumed their search Thursday morning, operating in water depths of 30 to 50 feet with poor visibility, MacDonald said.

MacDonald said divers are focusing on an area of the lake near the Bridgton-Naples town line, but they don't know the exact location of where the man was last seen, making efforts to recover his body a challenge.

A warden service aircraft is assisting divers in the recovery effort on Thursday.