By Brian Ellsworth

MIAMI (Reuters). The U.S. Coast Guard has canceled a three day search for 34 persons lost at sea in Florida after a boat capsized during what officials believe was an attempt by the Bahamas to smuggle migrants from the Bahamas into the United States.

Coast Guard Petty officer Jose Hernandez stated that nightfall was the time when search operations were stopped. This came hours after U.S. authorities had reported finding four additional bodies. The total number of confirmed deaths now stands at five.

On Tuesday morning, the tug boat crew found a single survivor clinging on to the submerged boat’s hull. He stated that none of the 40 aboard were wearing life jackets.

Since then, the Coast Guard and Navy ships and planes have traversed about 1,500 nautical miles off Florida’s Atlantic Coast. This area is roughly equal to Rhode Island.

Captain Jo-Ann Burdian of the Coast Guard’s Miami Sector said that on Thursday, the search for additional victims would end at sunset, “if we do not receive any specific information to redirect our efforts.”

Burdian answered a question about whether the other 34 migrants still missing ought to be considered dead. “It does not mean that it is likely that anybody else has survived.”

According to the survivor, the vessel, which was about 50 miles (80km) from Miami on Saturday night, capsized in rough seas the following morning. He was located approximately 45 miles (72km), east of Fort Pierce Inlet off Florida’s Atlantic coast.

U.S. Coast Guard officials and U.S. Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard have confirmed that the vessel was in an attempt to human smuggle, although the nationalities of the passengers have not yet been released.

Anthony Salisbury was the Miami agent responsible for the Homeland Security Investigations Office. He stated that it has opened a criminal investigation to seek prosecution of anyone involved in the scheme.

A separate incident was reported by the Coast Guard. They intercepted another sailing boat Tuesday off the Bahamas, overloaded with 191 Haitian migrants who are believed to be heading towards Florida.

Coast Guard officials stated that 189 of those on the boat were handed over to Haitian authorities. According to the Coast Guard, a mother with her infant were brought ashore in Port-au-Prince (Haiti’s capital) for treatment.

The number of cruises carrying Haitian migrants has increased as the Caribbean island country faces increasing economic and political crisis, along with gang-related kidnappings.

Two incidents in particular highlighted the influx of migrants looking to enter Florida from the Caribbean via the Bahamas. The Bahamas is known as a major hub for maritime human smuggling.