Tobago unprepared for emergencies at sea

ON February 24, I lunched with two friends, Mary and Fiona, visiting Tobago from the UK. Before our meeting, they announced they had a story to tell me – one that they felt would make an article of interest.

On February 21, the two had gone on a fishing expedition with Mary’s Florida-based sister, Denise, and her boyfriend, Joe. The sea was extremely choppy and their captain, Darrel, was navigating the boat through an area to which he referred as "between Buccoo and the graveyard."

At one point, Mary noticed a distant, bobbing object. A log? A ball? A buoy? No!

“It’s a human being!” As their boat pulled closer, they observed that it was a man, alive and stark naked. He refused their offers of assistance. “Leave me alone!” he kept saying.

Darrel instantly radioed the Coast Guard and, receiving no answer, called 211 (directory enquiries) to report the emergency. “I will call you back,” the female responder told him.

Meanwhile, the man was drifting rapidly, unseen for long periods in the huge swells and in danger of being run over by any passing vessel.

As Denise was scared of the choppy waves, Darrel moved the boat, seeking calmer waters. Spotting a lone fisherman in his pirogue, they alerted him to the situation and asked if he could assist.

Hearing that the individual had rejected help and, being unwilling to deal with the scenario alone, the fisherman declined to attempt a rescue. By that time the man was a distant dot, standing on an isolated reef close to some breakers.

About 40 minutes after the initial call, the "211 woman" phoned to inform Darrel that the Coast Guard would be contacting him.

Meanwhile, another pirogue with two men approached. Informed of the situation, they went for the man and, after some manoeuvring, were able to subdue and secure him, arms and legs tied.

Following this rescue, Darrel and passengers headed toward Gibson Jetty, behind the rescue pirogue. An emergency call had been made for an ambulance, which was not there when they landed, but arrived sometime later.

Denise and Joe, avid fishers when at home in the US, were appalled; Joe commented that had this been in Florida, a helicopter and boat would have been out there within five minutes of an emergency call.

Au contraire, approximately four hours had elapsed between the sighting of the man, their first emergency call and their return to land – at which point the Coast Guard finally contacted them (from Trinidad, not Tobago) to find out what was happening.

Not only had the four tourists’ paid-for and much-anticipated fishing expedition now aborted, but the two men in the pirogue, who had been on their way to collect passengers for a tour, had lost out on business and met irate customers who were, understandably, unaware of what had transpired. Who in their wildest dreams would believe that their tour operators had not turned up because they were rescuing a naked man from mid-ocean?

In bringing the story to an end, Mary raised a valid point: “Here they are, building a big airport to promote tourism, but not providing basic ocean-based emergency services for tourists, or locals – especially on this small island where fishing and most tourism activities are out at sea.”

In a 2024 newspaper article, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine stated that the Coast Guard has zero assets and zero boats resident in Tobago, resulting in no official assistance being available for users of the Tobago marine space. This is not only highly unacceptable, it is shocking. At least one vessel would help – not only to do rescue missions but to manage basic patrols of the porous coastline, given the influx of arms and drugs.

As Mary rightly said: “Tobago is a laid-back culture, but too laid back when it comes to emergencies and safety.”

In 2022 I wrote an article on then 15-year-old Gregg Alejandro (Alex) Mannette’s daring rescue of a drowning doctor at No Man’s Land (for which he was awarded the Hummingbird bronze medal for gallantry).

That day, the sea full of party people and the absence of guards was a potential disaster waiting to happen. So too is an ocean of fishing, tour and party boats with no official rescue services available.

Pro-action, not reaction, is vital when it comes to the safety of our citizens and visitors.

(Note: The names of people in this article have been changed).