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DAVID MOLLERING

VANISHED | THE MYSTERY
OF THE GINA LISA

The fishing boat Gina Lisa left only questions when it disappeared off the local coast in December.

Its skipper came from a family that had been fishing in San Diego for generations. Its only crew mate had worked for the family for almost 20 years.

They were sword fishermen, a dying breed in San Diego, where commercial fishing has been dwindling for decades, and where every crew must cope with the natural and manmade risks of casting a giant net in the open sea.

CHAPTER I, May 15, 2005

Vito goes to sea: Twenty-five miles off the coast of San Diego, Tim Mulcahy peered out from his fishing boat at a bright light shimmering beneath a half-moon in the December sky. The glow was from the Gina Lisa, a swordfishing boat captained by Vito Romani of Point Loma.

CHAPTER II, May 16, 2005

Missing at sea: Vito Romani pointed the Gina Lisa in the direction of a spot about 30 miles southwest of Point Loma, near the international boundary with Mexico. He'd had good luck swordfishing there before.

CHAPTER III, May 17, 2005

Loss and anger: In the hours after finding the Gina Lisa's empty life raft on the morning of December 5, the crew of the Calogera spotted an oil slick floating in the ocean along with debris: clothing, splintered wood, a door.

EPILOGUE, Dec. 3, 2006

What happened to the Gina Lisa: Nearly two years after the fishing boat Gina Lisa sank off Point Loma, the Coast Guard has released a final report concluding that the boat went down because it flooded in stormy weather.

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