Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

A pri­vate he­li­copter has joined the search in To­ba­go for two fish­er­men who went miss­ing on Fri­day. Rel­a­tives said David McLean, 26, of Low­lands and Buc­coo res­i­dent Kester Alexan­der left on a fish­ing ex­pe­di­tion aboard Preda­tor, a 24-foot pirogue with Yama­ha en­gines, reg­is­tra­tion TFT 2490, on Fri­day morn­ing. They were ex­pect­ed back at 5 pm the same day, but have not been seen since.

As night fell and both men were un­able to be con­tact­ed, con­cerned rel­a­tives con­tact­ed au­thor­i­ties and pro­vid­ed the last GPS lo­ca­tion of the ves­sel, which showed it in wa­ters south­west of To­ba­go.

How­ev­er, rel­a­tives said they were told by the Coast Guard that no boat was avail­able.

McLean’s fa­ther and pop­u­lar boat op­er­a­tor, David McLean Snr, took mat­ters in­to his own hands, ven­tur­ing in­to the dark­ness with his ves­sel to search for the men.

Rel­a­tives said McLean re­port­ed the wa­ter was ex­treme­ly rough with strong cur­rents.

He even­tu­al­ly sus­pend­ed his search and re­turned to shore around 2 am yes­ter­day.

As dawn broke, he was back in the sea, search­ing again for his son along­side oth­er rel­a­tives.

A rel­a­tive, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, told Guardian Me­dia, “They are sea­soned young men, but the sea is very un­for­giv­ing.”

De­spite McLean’s age, she said he was very ex­pe­ri­enced, hav­ing been at sea with his fa­ther from a young age.

“I just want them to get home safe.”

She said one of David’s friends who owns a he­li­copter of­fered his ser­vices to help look for the men.

She is urg­ing the au­thor­i­ties and all fish­er­men to help in the search as McLean Snr was a friend to all fish­er­men in their time of dis­tress. In 2024, the el­der McLean pro­vid­ed sup­port to en­durance ath­lete John Pro­cope as he made a his­toric swim from To­ba­go to Trinidad.

McLean’s sis­ter, Misty McLean, said the in­ci­dent has left the fam­i­ly shak­en.

“The whole fam­i­ly is up­set. His moth­er is in a state at home, feel­ing sick; every­body just pray­ing and wait­ing,” she said.

All To­ba­go Fish­er­folk As­so­ci­a­tion (AT­FA) pres­i­dent Cur­tis Dou­glas said some mem­bers have gone with their boats to look for the men.

TEMA di­rec­tor Al­lan Stew­art said he was briefed on the sit­u­a­tion, while Snr Supt Rod­hil Kirk said he was no­ti­fied about the sit­u­a­tion around mid­day.