Fishermen in northeastern New Brunswick returned to the waters off Tabusintac today.
All weekend, they had been searching for three of their colleagues who were lost when their lobster boat hit a sandbar early Saturday.
With their bodies now recovered, and funerals being scheduled, there is growing anger about a tragedy many on the wharf say could have been avoided.
“When we got to the area where they drowned, we got really quiet there,” says fishermen Ernest Robichaud. “It was quiet on the radio; everyone is in shock I guess.”
The Transportation Safety Board continued with its investigation today, interviewing fishermen to try to piece together why the lobster boat capsized early Saturday.
“We’re also going to look at the environment,” explains Pierre Murray of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. “The weather and the gully, the situation with the gully itself, the channel that the fishermen come in on.”
It’s believed the boat hit a sandbarbefore it capsized. It’s an area fishermen have long said needs to be dredged.
“That’s where it gets really shallow, and when it’s low tide here there’s no coming in here,” says fisherman Billy Francis. “For years, we’ve been asking DFO to dredge this and we never got any response or anything. Now, it took three good fishermen that I sailed, fished with alongside, for something like this to happen. Something has to be done before anyone else gets hurt.”
Fishermen in the area expected dredging work to be completed at the gully location by the time they were done Monday. That did not happen, but they’ve been guaranteed it will happen Tuesday.
“Really they were supposed to start here last week. There were some delays with the dredge up north, and he couldn’t get the job done there,” explains Robichaud. “We paid the price.”
Fishermen in Tabusintac feared it was only a matter of time before a tragedy like this happened.
They’re now hoping long-stated worries will lead to action.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.
