AN outing to look for crabs on the foreshore of West Coast Berbice turned tragic for a young couple on Tuesday when the 49-year-old male slipped into the Atlantic Ocean just off the MMA/ADA sluice at Trafalgar and disappeared beneath the waves.

Reports are that around 09:00hrs, Heron Ewart Anthony of # 29 Village, West Coast Berbice, had along with his wife Alicia just finished looking for crabs when he approached the sluice at Trafalgar and ventured to the edge to wash mud off his feet. A tearful wife Alicia said that as he bent over to wash his feet he slipped into the ocean. He then tried to regain the spot from where he had slipped, but the sluice was open and he was pushed away by the powerful current.

She shouted to him asking if he would be okay and while swimming, he pointed in a direction where he would regain the beach. At the time there was no one else nearby to render assistance. She said that she then ran towards the building where the sluice attendants were staying to inform them that he had fallen overboard. On returning, instead of seeing him climbing to the shore in the direction where she had seen him point, she saw only the empty ocean and no trace of her husband.

Many villagers went into the ocean where Anthony had disappeared and they were subsequently aided by a vessel from the Guyana Defence Force, but up to late Tuesday afternoon there was still no trace of the man. Relatives said too that they have been promised additional help by the Guyana Defence Force coastguard to try to locate Anthony today. Anthony worked as a mechanic with the RUSAL operations at Aroima, Berbice River. He and Alicia had been married for less than a year and he did not have any children.
Police investigations into the tragic incident are ongoing.

Meanwhile, some residents expressed the view that the MMA/ADA which owns the sluice, should prevent people from going there for purposes other than work. “Just near where Mr Anthony slipped in is a very, very deep spot just two or three feet from the shore and people should be discouraged from even being anywhere near that sluice, especially when it is draining,” a resident said.