Coast Guard Cutter Joins All-Out Search For Missing Kayaker

Search and rescue teams are on land, water and in the air looking for missing kayaker Maryan Lisovich, 23, of Lynn.

In addition, a state police dive team is on the water towing a side-scan sonar unit that provides underwater images, said Command Duty Officer Brian Fleming of the Coast Guard Boston Sector.

As of noon, the Coast Guard and other search and rescue units had been at it for 18 hours, the duty officer said.

Coast Guard search and rescue teams in Massachusetts have found missing people alive in the water — and on land — after searching for this length of time, the duty officer said.

"If he is on shore he could be disoriented," Fleming said.

In fact, two to three years ago, a person the Coast Guard's Point Allerton unit was searching for had come ashore, injured, and was found disoriented on land, on a homeowner's porch.

The Coast Guard remains in touch with the kayaker's mother, the duty officer said.

Maryan Lisovich had no shirt or life preserver when he left Fisherman's Beach, and he was wearing red swimming trunks.

The Coast Guard has three vessels and a helicopter involved in the search for the Lynn man.

The 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Hammerhead, with a crew of anywhere from 11-15, out of Woods Hole, has joined a 47-foot search and rescue boat and another Coast Guard search and rescue boat.

In addition, the state police dive team, the Massachusetts Environmental Police and harbormasters are involved. Swampscott police and firefighters are on land helping with the search, as well.

"On a scale of one to ten, this is a ten," Fleming said of the effort's magnitude.

The kayaker left Fisherman's Beach about 4 pm Saturday.

He was with a group of people but the only one to go into the water with a kayak at that point, Fleming said. It's possible the group including Mayran may have been kayaking earlier and came in to shore, he said. 

In any event, Maryan was the only one to go into the water at 4 pm, the duty officer said.

He was to return at 5:30 pm, and when he did not his girlfriend called 911.

The kayaker's blue kayak was found overturned in the surf with a paddle aboard in the area of Eisman's Beach, the duty officer said.

It is possible he may have had an additional paddle, Fleming said.

The initial computer model indicated that a person who was in the water late yesterday afternoon would have stayed in the vicinity but it is possible that, due to the tide, currents and wind that he could have drifted outside the vicinity.

Search and rescue efforts are underway from Nahant to Marblehead and Salem Harbor.

The teams will continue looking for the missing man until sundown and then decide whether to continue through the night.

Anyone with information is asked to please contact the Sector Boston Command Center at (617) 223-3201.

Editor's note: An earlier version had the kayaker's name spelled incorrectly.

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