Fishermen’s bodies wash ashore at Plum Mitan

Mairoon’s body was found first at around 4.30 pm, and the bodies of Mohammed and Pierre were found about a mile away in the Plum Mitan River.

Police yesterday said they were unable to determine what caused the fishermen’s pirogue "28 Special" to overturn in the choppy waters five miles off Ortoire Village.

Distraught relatives were at the scene up to late yesterday.

Earlier yesterday, Mairoon’s common-law wife, Victoria Flores, complained bitterly about a lack of help from the authorities. "My husband could be alive, but the Coast Guard is not doing anything to help us," she said.

With tears in her eyes, and holding their 20-month-old baby on her hip, Flores said, "when the white man drown on a barge out there (in the Mayaro seas) it had endless amount of divers and helicopters searching out there for him. But because is a poor youth man who suffering every day they can’t help him. Because we don’t have any money to give them, they can’t help we."

The boat’s captain, Mairoon, had left at daybreak Sunday for fishing off the Ortoire coast with Mohammed and Pierre. By 2 pm, when they did not return, Lydia Samaroo, wife of the boat’s owner, went in search of them, but found only their half-sunken vessel and a net filled with fish. The Coast Guard was contacted, and searched the sea for the three men.

Yesterday, Flores complained that the Coast Guard officers were not being efficient in their searches, and should be combing the seabed. "I was out there whole day yesterday and they only driving their boat up and down the place. When we find the boat, they said they can’t help us raise the boat because that is not their job," she said.

The six-foot-long hammerhead shark that was found tangled in the fishing net on Tuesday was gutted and sold by vendors in the market.

Fishermen did not find body parts in the shark’s gut.