Celebrated shipwreck explorer dies while diving on wreck off Cape Cod, crew says
A shipwreck explorer with numerous discoveries to his credit has died while on a wreck off Cape Cod, according to his crew.
Capt. Joe Mazraani died Tuesday, July 29, “in a diving related incident,” the Diving Vessel Tenacious reported in an Aug. 1 Facebook post.
“While we are choosing to keep the details private, we currently have no reason to suspect diver error or equipment failure. All indications point to a medical emergency,” crew member Jenn Sellitti wrote.
“Of course, the full investigation is ongoing. The incident occurred approximately 200 miles offshore, on the eastern edge of Georges Bank, during a dive to a shipwreck the team called The Big Engine Steamer.”
He was pulled aboard the Tenacious but efforts to revive him were not successful, the New Bedford Guide reports.
The investigation is being handled by the New Bedford Police Department, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
A lawyer by trade, Mazraani immigrated from Lebanon to the U.S. at 15 and turned his “obsession” with exploring shipwrecks into a New Jersey-based diving operation, Atlantic Wreck Salvage, the company reports on his website.
His death comes just two weeks after it was announced the crew discovered a key navigational instrument, a gyro compass, from the wreck of the Andrea Doria, which sank in a 1956 collision.
Mazraani and his team are also credited with finding the German WWII submarine U-550 and with locating the much sought-after ship’s bell from the HMHS Britannic, a sister ship of the Titanic that was sunk by a German mine in 1916.
“Joe Mazraani was larger than life,” Sellitti wrote on behalf of Atlantic Wreck Salvage.
“Some will say exploration like this is not worth the risk. If viewed in isolation, perhaps it isn’t. But this wasn’t just a dive. It was our way of life. Joe understood better than anyone that life offers no guarantees. He lived every moment fully, without compromise. He did not want to die doing what he loved—none of us do. He wanted to survive it, to grow old doing it. But when you live at the edge, sometimes the edge pushes back.”
The future of the Diving Vessel Tenacious remains to be determined, she said.
This story was originally published August 4, 2025 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Celebrated shipwreck explorer dies while diving on wreck off Cape Cod, crew says."