Rachael Roberts: "I want answers "

Stanley Roberts

A St. David's family is not happy with the manner in which the local Coast Guard responded to their plea for help to locate a missing fisherman.

GRENADA TODAY was told that 39-year old Stanley Roberts of Close Rock, Westerhall, St. David's went missing at sea on Saturday afternoon while on a fishing expedition. Family member, Rachael Roberts, a sister of the fisherman, complained that the Coast Guard was notified as early as 6.00 p.m but did not respond to their pleas for help until the next morning.

However, the officer-in-charge of the CoaSt Guard unit denied that any such report was made at 6.00 p.m and informed our News Desk that the first report was actually received around 10.00 p.m. He said the policy of the Coast Guard is not to go out to sea at night to look for small fishing boats since these small crafts do not have lights and in the circumstances could be run over by the Coast Guard vessel itself.

According to Rachael Roberts, her brother had left earlier in the day to engage in fishing along with other fishermen who operate out of the Fort Jeudy area. She said that he and the others were on their way back to shore but that Stanley never made it to his base at Petite Bacaye in Westerhall.

She spoke of Stanley often calling his wife on his cell phone once back on land from his fishing expedition. "When he did not call his wife on his cell phone, she called him instead and there was no response. She contacted the two guys and they told her that he should have already come ashore since it would have taken him about eight minutes to reach Petite Bacaye after they parted ways and they headed for Fort Jeudy.

The sister told GRENADA TODAY that the Coast Guard was notified that the fisherman was missing and that the response they got was that the unit had already received "a distress call" about the incident.
She said the Coast Guard refused to come out to the area and indicated to them that they would show up on the Sunday morning.

With the Coast Guard not showing up, Rachael Roberts said that a party of fishermen from the area went back out to sea to help search for their missing colleague. They reportedly returned around 2.00 a.m without any luck.

According to the sister, Coast Guard officials visited the wife on the Sunday morning and asked her if she knows how far out (at sea) Stanley was with the other fishermen. "I want some answers. I want to know what they (Coast Guard) are trained for. What are they being funded to do? Is it only to fill their pockets at the end of each month and go and buy beers to drink?"

"I want to know what they are supposed to do when you call them and tell them that somebody is in distress. If they get a call that somebody is seen with a few joints of weed, you would see how fast they reaching and just how many of them will show up.... A lot of them

A Coast Guard official told this newspaper that the relevant authorities in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela have been notified and that searches are being made at sea to try and locate the missing fisherman.

He said that an ice-cooler believed to be that of Stanley Roberts was spotted outside Molinere by a fishing party. He indicated that it was rather strange that Stanley had reportedly reached within striking distance of Petite Bacaye and that his ice-cooler could be seen in the area of Molinere.