[Fishermen found the survivor on Tuesday morning. The search was being led by the Miami Coast Guard using ships and aircraft, the agency said on Twitter.(Photo by= US Coast Guard)]

US Coast Guard officials are searching for 39 people who are feared missing after their ship capsized on Saturday night off the Florida coast. BBC said that officials were alerted on Tuesday morning after fishermen spotted a man clinging to the hull of a boat 45 miles (72km) from the city of Fort Pierce.

The survivor said the group had embarked from Bimini, Bahamas, on Saturday night and hit foul weather. US officials say the boat may have been part of a "human smuggling venture". According to the survivor, who has not been identified, none of the passengers was wearing a life vest. The search was being led by the Miami Coast Guard using ships and aircraft, the agency said on Twitter. By Tuesday afternoon, no further survivors had been found. The island of Bimini is the westernmost district of the Bahamas and is only 80 miles from Miami. Officials are searching from Bimini to Fort Pierce, an area roughly 135 miles wide.

Incidents with vessels crowded with people are not uncommon in the waters of Florida. Many of the cases involve migrants from Cuba and Haiti trying to reach the US. On Friday, the Coast Guard reported that they had found 88 Haitians in an overloaded ship west of the Bahamas.