The Tribune

THE Royal Bahamas Defence Force has not given up hope in finding three people who went missing at sea after leaving for a fishing trip last month.

In a statement released on Saturday, RBDF officials said they are still actively continuing to search for the overdue craft that was reported missing at the end of January.

Three people were reported to have left for a fishing trip onboard a 12ft skiff on Sunday, January 31. They were last seen in the area of Potter’s Cay dock and have not been seen or heard from since, although they were expected to return on the same day.

“After some five days of canvassing an expansive area of waters around the northern island of New Providence and surrounding cays and inlets along with an extensive search of the eastern and western shorelines of Eleuthera by members of the RBDF and BASRA, we have not located the vessel or its occupants as yet,” said Commander William Sturrup, the RBDF’s search and rescue coordinator.

“A United States Coast Guard air asset has also joined in the search efforts which extended as far as Chub Cay, Ship Channel and Highbourne Cays. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force is grateful to interagency partners for their support in this activity and remains poised to keeping Bahamian waters safe.”

In early January, it was reported that the US Coast Guard had suspended its search for a boat that left The Bahamas a week earlier with 20 people on board, but failed to arrive at its planned destination in South Florida a day later.

In a statement released on January 1, the American officials said they called off the search after rescue teams had covered 17,000 square miles over the course of 84 hours in search of the blue and white 29-foot Mako Cuddy Cabin vessel that may have been trying to smuggle people into the US.

The boat set off from Bimini in late December, but the Coast Guard District Seven Watchstanders received a report a day later informing them the vessel did not arrive in Florida as expected.

That search was a joint effort between the US Coast Guard air and sea crews, the Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association.

Although officials have not identified any of the passengers, some 20 people were believed to be on board the boat.