Tragedy in Tampa Bay

[fisabel]

Fellow fisherman,

Yesterday a tragedy hit four families in the Tampa. Four fisherman die around the mounth of Tampa Bay when they went fishing aound the Skyway Bridge on Saturday. They fail to return by 6 pm and the families started to send alarms to the rescue organizations.
The bodies of the four fisherman and a partially sink boat where found 20 mile west of the target fishing place.
No a lot of details are available for the cause of the tragedy, but we already can start to draw some conclusions:

1- The boat was a recent puchase, maybe it wast for fisrt time in the water.
2- The size of the boat was 17'. Four people in an
boat that size ?. A fith fisherman save his live because he was no able not make the trip.
3- No Radio, no Life jacket found on the boat or the bodies.

Lessons,

Be carefull and prepare when going out to fish.
to make this tragedy worst, all four fisherman belong to four different families, grow together, worked in the same place and lived in the same street.

Please,... be carefull !!!

Machetero

[Finster]

I am definatly an advocate of some sort of USCG safty coarse for new boat owners. We see all to often tradgity due to negligence and or lack of common sence. In addition a basic knowledge of the "Rules of the Road" would be a benefit to all boaters.
I am sure most of you who live on or near the water hear about these kinds of accident all too often.

[John R]

Agree - and an inexpensive license/certificate of sorts, PROPERLY initiated (the hard part) might be good too.

But that is the same problem with most saltwater fishing licenses, they are never properly initiated and maintained...

[fisabel]

Look like that the only way of communication from the 4 fisherman was a cell phone that one of then was carrying, but he forget the phone in the front seat of the truck that was used to tow the boat to the ramp.

Here some quoates from a local paper ( from a relative):

"Gomez's nephew, Faustino Dominguez Jr., and his wife, Dore, both 23, went fishing Saturday about noon, leaving from the same boat ramp used by his uncle an hour earlier. Not knowing the men were missing, they decided to head home early, about 3 p.m., because of choppy seas and high winds.

"When the wind peaked, there were 3-foot seas in the bay," Dominguez said. "From what I saw of (Gonzalez's) boat, it wasn't made for that kind of weather."

Dominguez said Gonzalez bought and sold boats regularly. He said he occasionally helped Gonzalez repair the boats. But Gonzalez wasn't very experienced at operating them, he said.

The boat the men went out in Saturday, "was a small boat and very, very low to the water," said Dominguez. "

[Scott]

Condolences to all the families ....

When you find out more info on what occurred please post