RCMP to search for body of missing fisherman
Posted Jan 14, 2013 06:20:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The search for a Yarmouth fisherman who went overboard Saturday is now being treated as a missing person case and RCMP will now try to recover the body.
Michael Jeffrey Doucette, 20, of Wedgeport, is presumed drowned after he went overboard the fishing vessel Row Row around 5:47 p.m. Saturday. It happened about 33 miles sout west of Yarmouth in the Atlantic Ocean.
The search was called off at 9 a.m. Sunday.
“If the person is presumed drowned generally we switch to body recovery,” Cpl. John Stoddart told News 95.7 Monday. “In rivers and lakes we will use our dive team to search to try to find the person. But in the ocean the chance of recovering the person is very slim.”
The Canadian Coast Guard searched throughout the night with vessels Earl Grey and Cutter. A Hercules fixed wing and Commorant helicopter were used to search from the air. Between 20 and 30 local fisherman and their vessels also aided the search, but were unable to locate the victim.
Doucette was reportedly not wearing survival gear, limiting his chance of surviving the cold ocean waters.
“The temperatures are just above zero degrees so a body won’t last very long in the ocean,” said Stoddart. “Wearing survival suits, generally they’re too bulky for working around fishing boats. So, a lot of the lobster fisherman don’t wear them.”
