Search suspended for 4 after fishing boat sinks off Massachusetts coast

The active search for four fishermen missing since the boat they were in sank off the coast of Massachusetts was suspended Tuesday evening after a more than 38-hour search, the Coast Guard said.

"The decision to suspend a search is never an easy one," Coast Guard Capt. Wesley Hester said in a statement. "We extend our condolences to the friends and loved ones of these fishermen during this trying time."

The 82-foot commercial fishing boat, the Emmy Rose, sank around 20 miles off the coast of Provincetown early Monday, the Coast Guard has said.

The Coast Guard in Boston got a notification from the ship's emergency beacon around 1:30 a.m., the owner called the crew on satellite phone but got no answer, and searchers found debris and an empty life raft but no sign of the men or the ship, the Coast Guard said.

The search involved aircraft and boats and covered approximately 2,066 square miles, the guard said. The Emmy Rose was based in Portland, Maine.