1 dead, 1 missing following fishing boat mishap in Atlantic Ocean

A fishing expedition in the Atlantic Ocean just off the West Berbice Coast turned deadly, leaving one fisherman dead while his colleague is still missing.
Dead is 49-year-old Ramdeo Samlall while 45-year-old Barat Bissoondial is still missing.

Both men are from D’Edward Village, West Bank Berbice and were reported missing since last Friday.
Some four days after they were reported missing at sea, Samlall’s body was on Wednesday morning found at the Belladrum foreshore.
Last Friday afternoon, the two fishermen left a small port at D’Edward for sea. They would normally go out to sea and use hooks to catch cat fish.
They were expected to return the following day. After they did not return by Saturday night, a search party was launched on Sunday but proved futile
As such, missing persons reports were subsequently filed at the Blairmont Police Station.
Farmers who were grazing their animals along the beach at Belladrum, made the discovery of the decomposed body at about midday on Wednesday.
The body was taken to Bailey’s Funeral Home, where his 74-year-old sister Morin Hardial was able to identify the body as being her brother’s.

“Me nah see so properly but the people who he went with say is he because he wear on the same clothes and I know him by his beard. He had a big beard and his hair was long. They get all the hair and beard there,” she explained.
Samlall had been a fisherman for all of his adult life. According to his sister, they had not seen each other for more than a year. She said it was another sibling who contacted her on Monday.
“She tell me that she hear that we brother drowned.” With that information she went to the boat owner and was told two persons went out fishing and neither had returned. Samlall who was the captain of the small vessel has two brothers and five sisters. Meanwhile, his partner, who is missing, had seven brothers and three sisters.
All of his brothers are fishermen. According to one of the brothers Mohanlall Bissoondial, he learnt of the incident when he returned from sea after spending more than a week.
“When I come I reach about midday and the guys on the wharf tell me that my brother lost at sea; like the boat brake up and sink and they not finding him. They searching and not finding him.”
He referred to his brother as an experienced fisher. “That is the job we doing all the time. We never do no other job other than fishing wuk.” According to Bissoondial, in the past it has not been easy for fishers using small boats.
“The water is really rough; you have to be careful in certain vessels out there. If you can’t get a proper vessel the wave would break up the boat… I really sorry for my brother,” he added. The search for the missing fisherman continues. (G4)