Crash at sea,

One day after he was thrown overboard during a collision involving a cargo vessel and a pirogue, the family of missing Couva fisherman, Anand “Smiley” Ramrattan, is still hopeful that he was able to survive the collision and would soon be reunited with his family.

According to reports, Ramrattan, 27, together with another fisherman, Kevin Scipio, 29, were fishing in the Gulf of Paria when a cargo vessel collided with their pirogue near Claxton Bay and both men were flung into the water.

Crewmen aboard the cargo vessel rescued Scipio but there was no sign of Ramrattan.

When Newsday visited Ramrattan’s Union Village home yesterday, his distraught mother, Molly Ramroop, 50, said members of his family had also joined in the search for her missing son.

“We are still hoping that he would be able to come out of this thing alive and come back to his family,” she said.

She said her son, who is unmarried and the second of eight children, was an experienced fisherman, who started fishing since he was 15 years of age.

Coast Guard divers are reportedly assisting in the search while family members are said to be searching the Claxton Bay shoreline.