FISHERMEN SUFFER DISTRESS AT SEA (MIRROR, PAGE 34)

From Joe Okyere, Elmina. Fishermen

For the 16-man crew of the “Nana Ayaya” canoe, it was a normal fishing expedition when they set sail in the evening of Thursday, August 28 to return the next morning.
However, things turned sour as they spent five days on the high seas after their 40 horse power outboard motor developed a fault.
According to the captain of the crew, Kwamena Shaibu, 44, after they had not made enough catch, they continued with their expedition, with the hope of making some before they returned to defray the cost of the expedition and also make some money for their toil.
Shaibu said fortunately they made a handsome catch after casting the first net. But unknown to them, their outboard motor developed a fault.
He said crew from two other canoes which saw their catch approached them to find out where they had made the catch, with the intention of making a catch of their own.
He said it was after the crew in the two canoes had left them that they detected the fault, saying that since there was no canoe in sight they tried frantically to repair it and sail back to Elmina.
Shaibu said try as they did, they could not fix it and they, therefore, resigned themselves to their fate, as colleague fishermen who had seen them in desperation refused to assist them, let alone send the message to the owner of the canoe after those fishermen had returned.
He said since it was just a day’s expedition, they had carried food and the necessary items they used at sea for such short outings.
He said they had to throw away their catch into the sea when the ice cubes they carried melted and the fish was going bad.
All that while, the owner of the canoe, Mr Emmanuel Mensah, aka Aborokyir Wansan, kept waiting in anticipation that the crew would return.
Mr Mensah, who is also a former Assembly Member for the Liverpool Electoral Area in Elmina, said relatives of the crew kept trooping to his house to find out what had happened to their loved ones when they detected the unusual delay in their landing.
He said about 5.30 p.m. on Friday he received a distress call on his cell phone from the captain about their ordeal and that they desperately needed food, water and fuel.
He said he sent a rescue team with their request between 6.00-6.30 p.m. on Friday but the rescue team could not locate the distressed canoe because it was drifting with the wind.
He said under the circumstance, the rescue team returned around 2.00 a.m. Saturday.
Mr Mensah said he sent yet another rescue team, which could also not locate the distressed crew. He said he then sent messages to the fishing communities along the coastline to be on the look out for any strange canoe within their territorial waters.
Shaibu said after their pleas to other fishermen who saw their plight to assist them had failed, it was only divine intervention which saved them by drifting the canoe to the shore at Apam.
He said as if their ordeal was not enough, after picking a spare outboard motor at Apam to continue with the journey back to Elmina, they lost another vital part of that motor and had to be rescued by another canoe before fixing the machine to enable them to get to Elmina.