Noble House Seafoods, the company that employed the three fishermen who are currently missing at sea, could face sanctions for failing to promptly report the boat mishap to the relevant authorities.
This was revealed by Director General of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) Stephen Thomas during a press conference hosted by officials to update the public on the matter.
“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,” the MARAD Head explained.
“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 light house 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,” he added.
He noted too that there are “various sanctions available.”
“They’re mainly administrative measures in place but we have in the law, every incident must be reported within 24 hours but that’s just for reporting. But for response purposes, like in this case, it should be done immediately. As they have information about a vessel having problems, there are various stages of emergencies. Not everything is an imminent emergency, but there are various stages…”
Missing are 44-year-old Harold Damon of Lot 4 Water Street, Agricola, Greater Georgetown; 47-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.
They went missing after the vessel which they were working on capsized on Saturday morning but the matter was reportedly only brought to the government’s attention on Sunday.
In fact, family members have complained that to date, the company has not made contact with them. Furthermore, on the evening of the incident, no police stations along the East Bank corridor were seemingly aware of the matter.
“Our understanding is that there was no information passed on to the lighthouse or MARAD (Maritime Administration) so it was approximately 24-hrs before there was any official knowledge of the incident,” Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn added during the press conference.
Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar noted too that based on preliminary information received, the incident was reported to the company at around 05:30h on Saturday but it was not reported to to authorities until late in the evening.
“So we have to find out what happened here, with respect to the owner of the vessel, why the information wasn’t passed to the regulatory or any government agency that deals with this kind of matters,” the Minister posited.
So far, a high-level Board of Inquiry (BoI) has been assembled to investigate the circumstances surrounding the matter.
The team comprises Yurlander Hughes of the Transport and Harbour Department, Captain John Flores of the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), Ronald Charles of the Ministry of Public Works, Rawle Williams of the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard, Ewart Wray of the Guyana Police Force Maritime Unit, Dwayne Vyphius who is an Occupational Safety and Health Officer at the Labour Ministry, and Denzil Roberts who is the Head of the Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture.
So far, efforts to locate the missing fishermen have proved futile. The men went missing after their trawler reportedly capsized in the Atlantic Ocean some 18 miles off of the Mahaicony Coast on Saturday morning. A fourth crew member survived the ordeal after being rescued by another fishing boat and was brought to shore on Saturday afternoon.
The surviving fisherman, Vincent Dazzell, told family members of the three missing men that the vessel, which is owned by Noble House Seafoods, started taking in water early Saturday morning.
Dazzell, who is also from Agricola, claimed that he was awoken by the captain sometime after 06:00h to check the boat, when he saw the engine room, ice-hold and ladder were already under water.
At that point, the captain called in to alert Nobel House but lost connection whilst talking to them, the survivor related. He further recalled that as the boat sank deeper, they also lost control of the vessel.
The man told the concerned family members that the crew were separated on two sides of the boat – he was with the captain. Dazzell related that the captain instructed him to cut the lifeboat and went inside to get his phone so that he could try calling for help, when the boat capsized and reportedly pinned the three missing men.
The survivor informed relatives that he was in the water for some time before being rescued by another boat. The fisherman claimed that they circled the area for some three hours before heading back to shore.
Upon arrival, he went to Noble House and informed the managers there of what transpired.
However, the family members of the three missing men are all fuming with anger over how the matter is being handled by the company.
They argued that not only did the company fail to inform them of the incident but claimed that it is withholding information from them.
Efforts by this publication to contact officials from Noble House for a comment were futile.
So far, the Coast Guard was called in and a rescue team went out Sunday morning with the hopes of finding the men. The surviving fisherman reportedly accompanied them as well. Vessels and personnel, including divers were deployed.
The search continues. Meanwhile, the investigation by the BoI is expected to be completed in 14 days.
