On Thursday afternoon, the 56-year-old scalloper Paul Pinto was fatally injured while fishing with his stepson 10 miles from Gurnet Point when a pulley line snapped and struck him on the back of the head.
Harbor Master Timothy Routhier, who is a paramedic, received a mayday call from Pinto’s stepson about 3 p.m., got into a boat, and responded to the scene with another medic.
Pinto lay unconscious as they worked on his wounds. A Coast Guard helicopter that had been training in the area airlifted him from the 40-foot vessel and flew him to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he died soon afterward, Routhier said.