CAMPBELLTON, P.E.I. - The bodies of both Tignish fishermen who were missing since their boat capsized off of North Cape on Sept. 18, have been found.
A body, believed to be that of first mate Moe Getson, 54, was found early Monday morning, on Roseville Beach, about 40 kilometers away from where the Kyla Anne sank below the waves six days earlier.
The remains of fishing boat captain Glen DesRoches, 55, were recovered Sunday, a few hundred meters around the point from where his boat capsized last Tuesday.
Several members of the Getson family were waiting on the bank Monday, at Campbellton Cove, shortly after 9 a.m. when members of the O’Leary Volunteer Fire Department and an RCMP officer brought the body up the shore on the fire department’s all-terrain vehicle.
“Relief,” said Stewart Getson in describing what it means to have his brother found.
That he was found so far away from where the boat’s captain was discovered, and approximately 24 hours later, he suggested, “I figure Moe was just being stubborn.”
Finding him, he said, brings closure for his family.
Officials from the provincial coroner’s office were on scene to take delivery of the body.
The remains were located around 8 a.m., by Lloyd Ellsworth of Brockton, who said he had been patrolling a section of shorefront between Burton and Roseville every day since the two fishermen went missing.
“It’s been over a year since I’ve been on the beach much, but, since this (fishing boat disaster), I just couldn’t rest,” he said in describing the effort by hundreds of people to find the missing fishermen.
Ellsworth, retired after more than 50 years of fishing, said it’s good to see closure.
“Everybody’s looking, looking; everybody’s got to do their part.”
He had started his search with a flashlight before daybreak Monday, leaving home shortly after 5 a.m., and first going along the beach in Campbellton in his truck and then to White’s Cove in nearby Burton where high tide prevented him from going any distance.
“Something was telling me to go to Roseville,” he said, indicating he drove that section of beach until arriving at rocks and then started walking. Then he started finding items he thought might have come off the Kyla Anne – flares, fish pans, lunch can cover – and he just kept walking.
“I had a feeling I might be getting near him.”
He figures he found the body around 8 a.m., but there was no cell phone service at that location. He estimates a half-hour would have passed before he got back to his truck and back up on the cape to get a cell phone signal to contact 9-1-1.
A day earlier, Rene Gaudet located the body of captain Glen DesRoches at North Cape, just before 8 a.m. Sunday, and he rushed to the Ground Search and Rescue command post which was setting up close by to alert them. Members of the Tignish Fire Department assisted in the recovery of the captain’s body.
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