Today marks exactly one week since three fishermen went missing after their trawler reportedly capsized and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, but despite a week of search and rescue efforts, there has been no sight of the men nor the vessel.
This is according to Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar. He met with family members of the three missing fishermen on Friday to update them on the current search operations being conducted.
Minister Deodat Indar and officials from MARAD meeting with family members of the three missing fishermen on Friday at the Public Works Ministry
The Minister was joined by Director General of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), Captain Stephen Thomas, and Captain John Flores, one of the members of the high-level Board of Inquiry (BoI) that was set up by the Government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sunken vessel – World Friend 307, which is owned by Noble House Seafoods Limited.
Missing: Harold Damon, Ronald Burton & Winston Sam
Following Friday’s meeting, Minister Indar told Guyana Times.
“I just met with them to keep them updated on what we’re doing [in relation to] the search operation; what we found so far and what we’re doing… [The search team] continues to search but they have not located the vessel as yet or any bodies,” Indar related.
Nevertheless, the Minister within the Public Works Ministry indicated that the search still continues.
According to Indar, he also listened to the concerns raised by each family members.
The three fishermen who went missing after their trawler capsized in the Atlantic Ocean some 18 miles off of the Mahaicony Coast last Saturday have been identified as 44-year-old Captain Harold Damon of Lot 4 Water Street, Agricola, Greater Georgetown, and two crew members: 46-year-old Winston Sam of Lot 32 Public Road, McDoom, Greater Georgetown; and 78-year-old Ronald Burton of Lot 23 Water Street, Agricola, Greater Georgetown.
A fourth crew member, Vincent Dazzell, survived the tragedy and was rescued by another fishing boat and brought to shore on Saturday afternoon. Before coming to shore, however, he said they spent some three hours exploring the area in search of the three missing fishermen but to no avail.
Speaking with Guyana Times after the meeting at the Public Works Ministry on Friday, Tiffany Sam, the sister-in-law of Winston, related that they were told that the net that was found earlier this week by the search team was not from the missing vessel but was an old one that was apparently dumped there a while now.
“What the Minister said is that they searched all the areas possible that the boat supposed to be and they haven’t found anything… They’re expanding the search now,” she said.
Tiffany further disclosed that they were told the metal detecting vessel that is being used in the search efforts went off twice during the operation but when the divers went underwater, in both instances, it was just planks.
She went on to add that they raised with the Minister, concerns about the surviving crew member’s varied account of what transpired to each of the families.
In a post on its Facebook page, the Public Works Ministry said that the families were also informed that they would be updated on the investigations being carried out by the BoI into the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the fishing vessel.
However, while they were told that the fishing boat sank very fast because it was heavy, the families believe that the vessel did not sink.
“If they’re claiming that the boat is iron and it’s that heavy, and it go down that fast then it supposed to be right around where they’re searching… So it’s not adding up; nothing is adding up even what the survivor is saying. So, I come to a conclusion that that boat didn’t sink. It’s six days and something should have already popped up. They said they’re not finding anything from the boat, nothing,” Tiffany related.
In response to their concerns, the woman said the Minister has instructed Captain Flores to check with the Police report filed by Dazzell and Nobel House’s records of the last time they had contact with the trawler.
Already, authorities have announced that the fishing company could face sanctions over its failure to promptly report the matter.
During a press conference on Monday, MARAD’s Captain Thomas had explained that, “there are distress procedures. All vessels are required to have a card with the distress procedure close to the radio so should there be an emergency, they would call all stations for any vessels within the vicinity, they would hear that and come to their assistance.”
Against this backdrop, the Director General contended that, “we have no records of calls being made from the vessel on that channel, the emergency channel. With respect with the contact that was made with Noble House earlier in the day, they should be informing us right away, which is the Lighthouse which works 24×7, we have the Coast Guard, we have our boat house, we have various entities that work 24×7 that they are to contact and we activate emergency response to the distress, but that wasn’t done in this case.”
Noble House Seafoods Limited has since issued a statement saying they will cooperate with this investigation as well as launch an internal probe of its own. The company also assured the families of the crew members that they will continue to “support all and every effort to locate the crew members”. (Vahnu Manikchand)
