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Family of drowned Corentyne fisherman still hopeful body could be recovered
(Kaieteur News) – Nearly a month after his disappearance at sea, family members of Permaul Punsammy are yet to recover his remains.
The 54-year-old man, of Whim Village, Corentyne, reportedly fell overboard and vanished while on a fishing trip on December 19 last year.
A few days prior on November 27, Punsammy, also known as Leon, joined three other fishermen on a fishing trip, a trade he held for over 30 years.
Permaul Punsammy
His daughter, Kamini, 30, had told Kaieteur News that the quartet had planned to make a “double trip.” She said they arrived in neighboring Suriname on December 7 with the intention of returning to Guyana in time for Christmas. The four, which included the captain, were fishing in the Coppename River, Suriname.
On December 15, the crew left for their second trip.
“On the fifth day at sea they were pulling in seine and they said how he tripped and fell overboard,” Kamini had stated.
The grieving daughter shared that she received a call from the captain on December 20 to inform her of what befell her father.
“The captain of the boat called me and said ‘Kamini, yuh daddy fall overboard and we can’t find he’,” she said. The boat owner also dispatched another boat with some of the man’s relatives to aid in the recovery effort, which was also unsuccessful.
Punsammy’s brother was also onboard with him when the tragedy occurred. His crewmen were unable to recover him despite scanning the area immediately. The men shared a close relationship with him, his daughter noted.
He was holding on to the seine, she explained, but only his sticker suit and his headlight were found.
The family has since accepted the possibility that Punsammy has drowned. As such, formal rites of 16-day wake in accordance with their Madrasi religion were held.
His daughter told this publication Wednesday was holding out hope that his body may be found.
“I’m trying really hard to keep up with what had happened to my dad….we spread the news about my dad as much as we could to most of the fishermen, but no one didn’t see anything, all I can say at this moment is that my dad die and we can never see him ever again, not even his dead body and this (is) hurting me and will continue to hurt me each day of my life cause my father was a very good man and he was a step dad to five kids and always treat them with love and he is a very friendly loving person and it hurt so bad losing him like that,” she expressed.
On the morning of January 2, the daughter received a tip from someone that a body was sighted adrift in the Berbice River, in the vicinity of the Berbice River Bridge, at the D’Edward Village, Regjon Five end. Overwhelmed with anxiety, Kamini and other relatives quickly journeyed from Whim to the location where the caller had indicated. Upon arrival, there was no body. The frustrated daughter told this publication that the caller had given false information. This angered the already spent woman.
“And the news about a body floating at the Berbice River was a fake news given to us, because we went there looking and saw nothing and we asked around and nobody saw nothing nor none fishermen either,” she said.
Kamini disclosed that the man raised her from the age of four when her biological father passed away, and that the two shared a strong bond.
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