Search continues for four fishermen missing between Westmoreland and Pedro Cays

Relatives in Clarendon are holding on to hope as they wait for word on 32-year-old fisherman Marcell Cameron, who has been missing since setting out for Pedro Cays.

His brother, Terrick Tapper, told THE STAR that Cameron had spent about a week caring for his sick three-year-old son before going back out to sea last Friday with three other men. “[Him] beg a ride on the boat back to Pedro Cays and all a them just go missing,” Tapper said.

Tapper said the trip was not unusual, which has made the disappearance harder for the family to understand. “It’s a usual thing, it's the same boat that him come over on he was going back on. Four persons on the boat. Four of them was going over to Pedro Cays. Someone at Pedro Cays who know they were coming talk to him … and he said he’s on his way. But him nuh turn up.”

He said people waiting for the men at Pedro Cays became concerned after the vessel did not arrive. Pedro Cays, a well-known fishing settlement off Jamaica’s south coast, has close to 800 residents and is used by many Jamaican fishers as a semi-permanent base.

According to Tapper, Cameron got on the boat in Westmoreland and was last contacted while the journey was under way. “Another family member call him and a talk to him and he said him alright, but from the light go off [last Friday] dem a try contact him to see if everything alright and to check on him,” Tapper explained.

Around 9 p.m. that Friday, Jamaica experienced an islandwide power outage. Electricity later returned across the country, but Cameron’s relatives still have no clear information about where he is.

“The owner fi the boat say him have tracker fi the boat, and from the boat reach in the middle of the sea, nobody can make contact and him can’t get fi track him boat again. And that has never happened before so we just don’t know,” Tapper said.

“It just leave we stress a way. Him babymother, the old lady stress, everybody just worried and don’t know what to do,” he added.

Cameron’s twin brother, Carcell, said the owner of the vessel told him that “he lost signal and it was 30 miles from Pedro Banks, which to me is in the deep”.

“We are puzzled, confused, uncertain as to what to think. But 95 per cent of sources can say they left from Westmoreland to head to Pedro Cays, and the crazy part is that for the first time he posted a video of the boat that he was boarding and now this,” Carcell said.

The news team viewed the video, which showed Cameron at night standing beside a red and blue boat marked in white with the name “D-Masters JM-F0062-RP”.

In an Instagram post, several agencies said a coordinated search-and-rescue operation was still in progress for the missing fishermen linked to a vessel identified as ‘D Master’. The entities named were the Maritime Air and Cyber Command, the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard, the JDF Air Wing and the National Fisheries Authority.

The post said search efforts were being concentrated along Jamaica’s southwestern coast and around Pedro Cays, with surface resources deployed and national partners assisting.