Pickering man drowns off Sherkston Shores

DAVE JOHNSON

POSTMEDIA NEWS

A 50-year-old Pickering man has drowned in Lake Erie off the Sherkston Shores resort.

Two Port Colborne Marine Auxiliary Rescue (POCOMAR) unit vessels, a vessel from Lake Erie Towing and the Niagara Regional Police marine unit searched the waters for the man Wednesday afternoon while Port Colborne Fire and Emergency Services firefighters worked from the shoreline.

A Royal Canadian Air Force rescue helicopter from 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron based in Trenton, Ont., also joined in the search on Lake Erie.

After just more than 2½ hours of searching, the NRP said, the police marine unit found the body of the man who is a regular vacationer at Sherkston Shores in the rural east end of Port Colborne.

Police, fire and Niagara Emergency Medical Services were all called to the resort — with RV/ camping and resort homes/cottages — at 5 p.m. for the report a person in the water in possible distress roughly 200 yards from shore.

Police said the man, who the are not identifying, was alone at the time and entered the water on an inflatable lounger.

He was last seen by witnesses attempting to swim towards shore before they lost sight of him. The inflatable lounger was located several hundred yards from where the man was last seen.

The winds were out of the north the time of the incident and wave conditions were one foot. The water temperature was roughly 17 C.

POCOMAR’s two vessels, known as P1 and P2, were called just shortly after 5 p.m. and responded to the area. The police marine unit was also dispatched and joined in the search.

Port Colborne fire Chief Tom Cartwright said firefighters searched from shore and had two men in an inflatable searching as well.

At about 7:40 p.m, the police marine unit located the man, whose body was taken to St. Catharines hospital for post-mortem examination Thursday morning.

He has been positively identified and his next of kin were notified of the incident, police said.