THEY LIVED TO TELL THE TALE
As many as 15 boats filled with fishermen set out to sea on Friday evening from Moratuwella but fishermen from at least seven boats were never to return home from that journey.
Royce Anthony recalling his mid-sea ordeal on Saturday said he had not only lost many of his fellow fishermen but also his nephew that day.
Anthony along with his nephew Nilantha Tharadinandu had set off to sea with a fellow fisherman that Friday evening as usual. The three had cast out their nets and were fishing when the seas had suddenly become rough and the trio had decided to return.
It was on their way to land that they had seen other boats that set out with them capsize in the rough seas. With no way to save the other fishermen due to the bad weather, the three had decided to make it to land.
They had been floating in the sea for a few hours when Anthony realised that Nilantha was not responding to any questions or talking to him. “So I tapped him on the shoulder and that’s when his head fell forward and I knew he was dead,” Anthony said recalling the horror.
Anthony had then tied the body of his nephew to the flag pole of the boat as he did not want to lose him to the sea. “And that’s where I was since five in the morning till 11, holding on to his body because I didn’t want to let him go, until the Navy Dvora came to rescue me,,” he said.
It was when Anthony was being rescued by the Navy that tragedy struck again. “I lost his body to the sea and we have not been able to recover it,” he said with deep sorrow.
While fishermen battled to stay afloat and return to land another battle was being fought by the fishing community.
President of the Dehiwala Fisheries Association, Anura Fonseka recounted the uphill battle to send out official search parties.
“They left at about five in the evening as usual. We realized the sea was getting rougher but we didn’t know what was happening. So we waited,” he said.
When several of the boats had returned to land, the news of bad weather and capsized boats reached the community who had informed all authorities with the hope that search parties would be immediately sent to look for their families and friends.
“When there was no response we couldn’t think of anything else to do but to get the attention of the authorities, so we blocked the railway lines with boats and then we started a demonstration,” Fonseka said. Close to 2,000 protestors from the community took to the streets that day. They burned tyres and wood and demanded that authorities start rescue operations.
Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia Mayor, Dhanasiri Amaratunga, one of the many officials who came to the scene was forced to agree in writing to develop the fishing harbour in the area, as it was remained dangerous. It was thereafter that the boats were removed from the railway lines and rescue operations were begun by the navy and the Air Force.
While the overall death toll due to bad weather had risen to 42, including 38 fishermen, of whom seven set to sea from Dehiwala on Friday evening, close to 30 fishermen were yet suspected to be missing.