Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents are searching for a missing boater following a fatal boating incident in Plaquemines Parish.
LDWF agents along with the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Coast Guard responded to a capsized vessel this morning, May 2, in the Gulf of Mexico about half of a mile from South Pass.
According to the survivor, he and two other men were on a 27-foot vessel around 7 a.m. when it capsized ejecting all three men into the water. The 60-year-old survivor from Baton Rouge was able to retrieve one of the men and get him to shore.
The man that the survivor retrieved was unresponsive once on shore and pronounced dead by a medical examiner on the scene. The deceased was 86 years old from Magnolia, Texas. His body was turned over to the Plaquemines Parish Coroner’s Office to determine an official cause of death.
The search and rescue crews are searching for the other missing boater in the area of the capsized vessel. The missing boater is 85 years old from Baton Rouge.
LDWF will be the lead investigative agency for this boating incident. None of the men were wearing a personal flotation device at the time of the incident. It is unknown at this time what caused the vessel to capsize.