Police divers are still searching for the body of a 56-year-old man believed to have drowned along with two others at the Fish River mouth on Saturday 8 June.
Police divers are still searching for the body of a 56-year-old man believed to have drowned along with two others at the Fish River mouth on Saturday 8 June.
Officially identified as Phillip Andre Jamaar, an East London resident, police and sea rescue teams were called out last weekend to find the fishermen whose canoe was said to have capsized in the waves.
NSRI Port Alfred station commander Juan Pretorius said the volunteer sea rescue duty crew received reports of the incident at8.30pm on Saturday.
Pretorius said a man named Clinton Jones who claimed to be a survivor, and the son of one of the missing men, had raised the alarm.
"He reported that he and [three]other men (his father, an uncle and a friend of his father, all from East London) had gone to a rocky outcrop at the Fish River mouth aboard a small dinghy where they had fished from the rocks," Pretorius said.
At a spot approximately 50 kilometres north of Port Alfred, the men were trying to get back ashore at around 5pm when waves capsized the small boat.
Pretorius said it was high tide at the time and the three older men went underwater. Clinton managed to hang onto the upturned hull of the canoe and make it back to shore.
"After failing to find any sign of the three men [Clinton] hiked approximately three kilometres to get to a phone to raise the alarm," Pretorius said.
Sea conditions were reportedly two- to three-metre swells.
NSRI Port Alfred and Police Disaster Management teams responded to his call.
"On arrival at the scene rescuers met the survivor who was made comfortable and he was warmed up," Pretorius said, adding that Clinton was in a state of shock but not injured.
As soon as rescue teams started combing the shallow surf, Pretorius said one of the men's bodies was found.
Police assisted in the search along with family members who had arrived during the night. Police divers and K9 dog rescue teams then joined the search on Sunday.
Counselling was arranged for the bereaved family.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender told Grocott's Mail that the two men found were identified by their families as Claude Anthony Jones, 55, and Cobler Henry King, 56.
As of Monday this week she said the search for Jamaar was still on. Police have opened an inquest docket for investigation.
