Missing Fishermen Return Home Safely
There was both joy and relief for the families of thirteen fishermen on Saturday morning. The fishermen had set sail fifteen days ago from Copper Bank and during that time, there was no word from them; their seven families hoped for the best, but feared the worst after multiple reports surfaced that the vessel had capsized. A search by the Belize Coastguard, the Belize Defence Force, the Belize Audubon Society and Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association scoured the area of the Lighthouse Reef and Turneffe Atoll and on Saturday, the group sailed to Belize City. News Five’s Duane Moody was at the Northern Fishermen Cooperative when they arrived.
Eneida Pulido
Eneida Pulido, Wife of Fonsiano Copo Jr.
“When they told me that my husband is dead; that made me think lots of things. Last night I can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t do nothing, thinking that my husband is dead or something else happened to him. That was a hard thing for me; that somebody else came in mi home and told me that my husband is dead. That shocked me really.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
Despair and confusion…it was an extremely emotional two days for the families of thirteen Copper Bank fishermen who were reported missing at sea on Friday and presumed dead. The men, including Boat Captain Fonsiano Copo Senior, his two sons and several relatives left home on a twenty-four-foot sailboat en route to Turneffe Atoll on a routine fishing trip. It had been fifteen days since they were seen or heard from by family members. But the families became anxious and worried when word spread like wildfire that the Nayady vessel had capsized; that the bodies of several men were discovered on Turneffe and even more gut-wrenching, that ten bodies were being brought to Belize on a boat.
Humberto Pulido
Humberto Pulido, Father in law of Fonsiano Copo Jr.
“I met a fisherman and he told me that the boat turn over and they found three persons dead. So I hurried home to Chunox and I went to Chabelo’s house and I found his wife and she was very bad. And his niece was treating her because she worry with her heart. Everybody was crying, the family from the other guys was crying.”
Eneida Pulido
“When my cousin called me, I get very happy because I appreciate that he helped me and the coastguard and the rangers help us to find where they are or what happened to them or something.”
The Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association that manages the protected area in which these men have been given access to fish, got the distress call on Thursday evening and less than twenty-four hours later, conservationists set out to scour the area. Coastguard personnel were also deployed to search the Lighthouse Reef and Turneffe Atoll with aerial support from the Belize Defence Force Air Wing on Friday. The situation at hand was also personal for TASA’s Acting Operations Manager Eliseo Cobb because the men are related to him.
Eliseo Cobb
Eliseo Cobb, Acting Operations Manager, TASA
“There was a lot of rumours and really serious rumours that created a lot of panic—not just with the fishing families, not just at the community, but also in Belize City with everybody involved in the fishing industry. So who or what triggered that rumours is still unknown. But from our end late Thursday evening that’s when the rumours started to circulate and early Friday morning things got really serious. From our end, we notified out partners, the Belize Audubon Society, who also look over the other main fishing area for this fisher, the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. So I got in contact with the Belize Audubon Society and they were not aware of it. So we did agree for both of them to do a sweep of the area so that we can track down this missing vessel.”
The hours of searching came up empty; the Nayady and its thirteen men onboard were nowhere to be found. That is until just before ten o’clock on Saturday morning, when conservation officers stationed at Turneffe spotted the vessel with its crew. They were assisted with fuel and made their way back to Belize City.
Eliseo Cobb
“Minutes to ten, I got a call from one of our conservation officers that they spotted and made contact with the sailboat and the good news is that everybody is okay and they are on their sailboat and they are coming from their fishing trip from the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. So the boat is not capsized, no one missing, everybody is okay and they are heading to Belize City. They should be there like around midday or minutes after midnight.”
That journey took longer as family and friends stood watch at the Northern Fishermen Cooperative and then behind the courthouse, looking out at the harbour for a glimpse of their loved ones. Late afternoon, around three-forty-five, Captain Fonsiano Copo Senior and his crew moored the Nayady and deposited their fisheries products at the cooperative. Chabelo, as he is affectionately known, has over three decades experience as a fisherman and explains that due to the weather conditions, their return was delayed, but they were safe from any harm.
Fonsiano Copo Sr.
Fonsiano Copo Sr., Captain, Nayady
“Nothing happened to us at all, at all. Everybody is okay; nobody is hurt; everybody is cool. Only because of the weather so we had to relax. I have a good icebox so we could spend up to twenty days out there, you see.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
