Editor's Letter

Matt Winter

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I don't want to imagine the kind of hell those four fishermen went through in the Gulf of Mexico. I don't ever want to know what it's like to cling to an overturned hull as, one by one, my friends succumb to hypothermia and drift away. And I certainly never want to fully understand the kind of desperate, bone-chilled delirium it would take for a person to slip out of a life jacket and just let go.

But as a saltwater fisherman, these are exactly the kind of things I should be thinking about. We all should.

The horrifying boating accident that killed three and left one man barely alive made national headlines in early March.

Four young men - two were NFL players - set out Feb. 28 from Clearwater Pass, Fla., to go fishing offshore. According to subsequent government investigations and media reports, the men took a single-engine, 21-foot center console more than 50 miles offshore to fish for amberjack at a reef.

Though reports suggest a long list of contributing and avoidable factors - too small a boat, bad weather, alcohol consumption, no detailed float plan, a lack of proper communication and emergency equipment - improper anchoring proved to be their fatal mistake.

When it came time to leave, they found that their anchor was stuck on the bottom. Instead of cutting it loose, they reportedly tried to pry the anchor off the reef by cleating the anchor line at the stern and throttling forward. Predictably, the boat capsized.

Stuck in the cold Gulf waters as a front moved in, they quickly found themselves in a terrifying and heart-wrenching story of loss. The Coast Guard rescued the sole survivor about 42 hours after the boat capsized. He was found hugging the lower unit of the upside-down motor.

Though the tragedy played out hundreds of miles from Charleston, it sent shivers through our local fishing and boating crowd - and rightly so. As we start another season of offshore and nearshore fishing, the Lowcountry's many small-boat anglers need to take notice. All of us need to know with utter certainty that whenever we venture out on the water, we are, to some degree, putting our lives on the line.

It's our responsibility to do everything we can to lower the risk.

Please, if the weather's iffy, wait for another day. Put off buying new rods and reels and instead invest in VHF radios (main and backup), an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and other safety equipment. Leave detailed float plans and don't push your vessel beyond its safe limits. Take a boating safety course. Spend time with experienced captains and ask for advice. And if a scenario ever arises that pits equipment loss against safety, do the right thing.

Things can go bad in a hurry out there.

- Matt Winter, senior editor