Image: Left/Jennifer Sellitti(credit: Joe Mazraani 2025)/Right/A diver splashing from D/V Tenacious during operations offshore ( credit: Jennifer Sellitti)
She has said she still finds it difficult to discuss the loss of the man who introduced her to shipwreck diving.
On July 29, 2025, Mazraani suffered a medical emergency while diving to an unidentified wreck the team called the “Big Engine Steamer,” roughly 200 miles off the Massachusetts coast on Georges Bank, according to The Guardian. Speaking on behalf of Atlantic Wreck Salvage, Sellitti said there was no reason to suspect diver error or equipment failure, and that a full investigation was underway. “All I know is,” she told The Guardian while remembering Joe, “that the further from shore I am, the closer I am to him.”
Sellitti was aboard Tenacious that day. The crew brought him back to the boat and attempted CPR, but could not revive him. Since Mazraani’s death, Sellitti has taken the helm of Atlantic Wreck Salvage and D/V Tenacious, continuing the expeditions they once ran together. As Managing Member, she leads dives, conducts historical research, oversees side-scan sonar surveys, and works to educate the public about shipwreck discovery and responsible salvage. She is an associate member of the Boston Sea Rovers and a trustee of the New Jersey Maritime Museum. When she is not at sea, she works as a criminal defence attorney. Her first book, The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-And-Run Off the Coast of Nantucket, tells the story of the sinking of the Nineteenth-century passenger steamship, Le Lyonnais.
