A Jonesport lobsterman on Monday found a body in the ocean near Addison.
The Maine Marine Patrol has recovered the body, and it is being transported to the Maine medical examiner’s office in Augusta for identification, Maine Department of Marine Resources spokesperson Jeff Nichols said.
Nichols declined to comment on whether the body may be that of Tylar Michaud, a Steuben lobsterman who went missing on July 21 after he went out to haul traps near Petit Manan Island.
Michaud, 18, just graduated this spring from Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan. Several hundred people attended a celebration of life service held Sunday for Michaud at the school.
Charles Kelley, a Steuben lobsterman and pastor at a local church who led Sunday’s service for Michaud, said that while an official identification of the body has not been made, people close to the family and who were involved in the extensive search believe it is Michaud.
“Everybody is pretty sure it is Tylar that they’ve found,” Kelley said. “No one else has gone missing.”
After yesterday’s service, members of the Schoodic-area lobstering community and their families went out in 37 boats off Steuben and motored in a slow circle off Petit Manan Point, where Tylar is believed to have drowned, Kelley said. A wreath was dropped into the water, a final call was made over a radio frequency that fishermen use, and a Maine Air National Guard plane and private planes flew over the site where many had searched.
If it is Tylar, it will help bring some sense of closure to Tylar’s extended family, which includes aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, step-siblings and many friends, although finding his body so soon after Sunday’s ceremonies may reopen the pain of losing him a little, Kelley said.
“The hurt of losing a child never goes away,” the pastor said.