The Belize Coast Guard is currently leading the search for these missing men, but are also starting to accept the likelihood that they are likely not going to find them alive. Today, at another event, the media got an opportunity to speak with Captain Elton Bennett, who is now the new commandant of the Coast Guard, and he told us that too much time has passed for this to be a rescue mission:
Reporter
"Can you provide us with any update on the search for the 3 missing Belize City fishermen?"
Capt. Elton Bennett, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
"Nothing new to report, we continue to search units concentrating in the same search area that we were searching in for the past 48 hours and the reason being the possibility of them being submerged over the past two days and hopefully, if cases of drowning or any other criminal act, bodies will be floating in the same area. So we are out in the area and we are looking at this stage for persons in the water."
Reporter
"Rescue effort?"
Capt. Elton Bennett
"At this stage it's not a rescue effort, we're going into a recovery mode and the approach to recovery is a little bit different from the rescue operation because we're looking for a slower drift. The search units move a little bit slower and the search area is a little more concentrated and the equipment onboard is different from a rescue operation, so we're in recovery mode at this stage."
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