Tobago Correspondent
It has been a week since Richie Cox was swept away by rough seas while fishing at Black Rock, Tobago. Curtis Williams, President of the All-Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFA), hopes his team will be able to recover the body before the weekend.
Cox, 21, of Black Rock, went missing on April 11 after a wave knocked him off a rock. A friend who was with him managed to swim to safety, but Cox was swept away and pulled under by strong currents.
Douglas said it is a difficult time for the family and his association as Cox was a member of his team.
“AFTA has been continuously searching from day one up to now. Everybody is searching. He was employed at AFTA,” he said.
“Mr Cox played an integral role and he was a part of the youth building team. We were seeing how best we could incorporate the youths into the fishing industry. He was liked.”
Cox’s body was spotted drifting off Black Rock beach on Friday but vanished before divers could get to him.
Dive specialist Alvin Douglas said the body should resurface in the next 48 hours. He said his team is doing all in their power to recover the body and give the family closure but he felt more must be done to educate and prepare fishermen and others involved in marine activities.
“Most of the time when we have incidents like these, our knee-jerk reaction is to avoid the ocean. We live on an island. What we need to do is find a way to educate our kids to be safe when they go into the water.
“We need to get educated on the marine environment, survival swimming, the dynamics of the waters,” he said.