Tulum, Q.R. — UPDATED: A local man remains missing after his boat overturned on a Tulum lagoon Sunday. Two men were fishing from a kayak on the Cobá lagoon when they overturned.
David “M” was rescued by nearby hotel employees from Coqui Coqui. The second man, Enrique Daniel “W”, remains missing.
The accident happened around 2:00 p.m. when they were in the middle of the lagoon. Public Security and Citizen Protection Secretariat of the Municipality of Tulum arrived at the scene of the accident from where water search for the second kayaker began.
After four hours of searching the lagoon and its shores, Civil Protection postponed the search until Monday.
Juan Manuel Castilla Jaimez, head of the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Firefighters of Tulum, said the search is to resume Monday after being suspended Sunday due to security protocols for those participating in the rescue.
Castilla Jaimez said search and rescue scoured a perimeter of at least 500 meters where the man was supposedly last seen, however, so far they have been unsuccessful in locating him.
“The last thing we know is that these people entered the Cobá lagoon on board a kayak to fish, but they never took into account the weather conditions such as rain and strong wind that caused the boat to overturn,” he said.
Both men are from the nearby town of San Juan de Dios.
UPDATE: The body of missing fisherman Enrique Daniel “W” was found by a dive search team Monday. His body was pulled from the lagoon around 10:00 a.m. after nearly 10 hours of searching between the two days.
Enrique Daniel “W” reportedly fell into the lagoon Sunday while fishing from a kayak with his friend David “M” who survived the incident. It has since emerged that Enrique Daniel “W” did not know how to swim. Authorities have not said if the men were wearing life jackets at the time of the accident.
