Even as inclement weather conditions at sea pose challenges, search efforts are continuing for the three fishermen who went missing on Saturday after the vessel they were aboard, capsized some 18 miles off the Mahaicony Coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
The missing men are Captain of the vessel, Harold Anthony Damon, 45; Ronald Burton, 78; both of Agricola, and Winston Sam, 46, of McDoom, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
Maritime Administration (MARAD) Director of Maritime Safety, Captain John Flores yesterday told this newspaper that Noble House Seafoods has deployed two vessels to aid in the search for the missing men as well as the vessel.
Members of the search and rescue team yesterday paused their efforts to regroup and undertake maintenance on their vessel. Flores said that the team will be resuming today with better coordination and the objective to pinpoint the location of vessel.
Earlier in the week, the search crew had located a seine and was hopeful it would have led them to the sunken vessel M/V WorldFriend 307. However, this was not the case.
An additional two trawlers are expected to join search efforts today and Stabroek News understands that the search zone will be widened by two miles.
MARAD’s vessel which is a part of the search, is equipped with a metal detector and will be scouring the seafloor in a bid to detect the sunken vessel.
Vincent Dazzell, another crewman from Agricola, is the lone survivor to date and has been assisting with the search.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar and Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn on Monday named the investigating team at a brief meeting held at the Ministry of Public Works Boardroom, Kingston.
The team consists of MARAD Director of Maritime Safety, Captain John Flores; Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard, Lieutenant Rawle Williams; Ministry of Agriculture Chief Fisheries Officer, Denzel Roberts; Yurlander Hughes from the Transport and Harbours Department; Ronald Charles from the Ministry of Public Works; Senior Superintendent, Ewart Wray of the Guyana Police Force Marine Unit; and Dwayne Vyphuis, Occupational Safety and Health Officer from the Ministry of Labour.
“Those seven persons will be tasked to provide a report for the sequence of events commencing from the point of the place of departure from Port Georgetown straight through to the point where they received the distress call to confirmation that the boat (had) sunk…”, Indar said.
