A search for a missing Saint Lucian fisherman ended with nine people being brought safely ashore—the 24-year-old and eight others who had gone out to find him.
According to a Martinique news report, the fisherman spent more than a day adrift after leaving alone aboard his vessel, Hope and Pray, to fish off Soufriere. His family raised the alarm when he failed to return.
The Royal Saint Lucia Police Force’s Marine Unit alerted the Antilles-Guyane Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, known as CROSS AG, triggering an emergency broadcast over the maritime distress channel.
Martinique’s civil security helicopter, Dragon 972, searched for the missing vessel, but those initial efforts were unsuccessful.
A Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard DASH-8 aircraft, equipped with radar and an infrared camera, subsequently spotted the boat. The fisherman fired a distress flare to signal for help.
The aircraft also located a second boat carrying eight people who had left Soufriere to search for him.
The nearby tanker Monarca 1 assisted both vessels and brought their occupants to Saint Lucia.
The fisherman was then taken to a medical facility for examination.
