NATIONAL BRIEFING / NEW JERSEY

Rescuers searched the ocean darkness for the last four crew members of a fishing boat that went down with seven people aboard as fears mounted that the death toll would rise to six.

The Lady Mary, a 71-foot scallop boat based at Cape May and owned by a North Carolina man, sank about 75 miles off the coast about 5 a.m. Only one survivor had been found by nightfall; two other crew members plucked from the icy water by a Coast Guard helicopter died.

All seven were wearing cold-water survival suits, the Coast Guard said, but a national search-and-rescue expert said odds were slim that they were still alive in the 40-degree water.