South Boston woman, 40, dies after scuba diving off Rockport

A South Boston woman died two days after having “difficulty” while scuba diving off Rockport over the weekend, officials said. 

Rockport police were notified late Saturday afternoon of a potential drowning near the Dry Salvages rock mount, about two miles offshore, the Essex District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. 

The woman, 40-year-old Sara Elizabeth Nivens, had gone scuba diving with her father in a charter boat, the DA’s office said. She was helped back onto the boat, which later docked at T-Wharf in Rockport.

The Gloucester Daily Times reported that there was a group of about 10 divers on the diving excursion Saturday afternoon. A distress signal went out at the time of the incident, according to the newspaper.

“We responded to a mayday call on Channel 16 for a diver who was unresponsive,” Rockport Harbormaster Rosemary Lesch told the Gloucester Daily Times Monday. “The diver came up and she was unresponsive.”

Lesch told the newspaper that fellow divers were performing CPR when she and a fellow harbormaster arrived at the scene. 

Nivens was taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester and later transferred to the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, according to the DA’s office. She was pronounced dead on Monday. 

The Rockport Police Department, Massachusetts State Police Dive Team, and state police  detectives with the DA’s office are investigating the incident, according to the press release.

Abby Patkin

Staff Writer

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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