WILL they ever be coming back home?  Are they still alive? These questions are haunting the minds of relatives of two West Berbice fishermen who went missing at sea eleven days since. The two are boat owner Mahendra Ompertab, 29, known as ‘Rub’, of Lot 318 Rosignol Village, West Coast Berbice, and his brother-in-law Kanhai Madramootoo, 42, of the same address who went out to sea at around 6:30hrs on Saturday, August 18.
The two members of the Rosignol Fishermen’s Co-op Society left their Rosignol base in a small white, red and green boat fitted with a 40-hp engine on a journey which does not usually last more than 12 hours.
They were expected to return at approximately 16:00 hours on the day that they left, but haven’t been seen or heard from since.
Rajendra Victor, a relative, told Guyana Chronicle yesterday that daily sea searches involving fishing boats and the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard, mounted since August 19, had failed to find any clue which may suggest the fate of the men.
“Normally, (when) a boat goes down, you find some trace — either the boat itself, the danny body with the flag, food bowls, fuel tanks, floaters, or even the fish tray. They had 55 floaters with them. We searched the sea, we didn’t find one; not anything. There was no trace.”
The Coast Guard has since pulled out of the search, and efforts by the fishing boats are waning because of the daily need for fuel for the search vessels.
Victor said he and other relatives of the missing men feel that, despite diminishing hopes of finding the two men alive, more could be done to continue the search.
The missing men were described as veteran fishermen Ompertab, a father of three, and Madramootoo, a father of one.
Victor said the two families were desperately hoping that the men had landed somewhere, had been rescued, and would soon be heard from.
Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said he was aware of the disappearance of the two men, and that his Ministry has been supporting the search, and will continue to so do in the form of fuel and other resources.
He, however, ruled out an air search by helicopter, saying it would not be feasible, given the distance the men are believed to have travelled out to sea.
He said he plans to visit the men’s worried relatives shortly.