But there are two traumatic deaths to report. We start first with our coverage of the drowning at sea of 30-year-old Oscar Cornel Jr., who was a sitting councilor on the Trial Farm Village Council.

Information is still being gathered, but what we've been able to learn so far is that last night at around 7:15, the boat he was in, named ""Baby Gisselle" crashed into another vessel, named sir Alex about 5 miles southwest of Caye Caulker Village.

We understand that he was employed with the Nautilus Express Water Taxi Company, which specializes in transporting tourists from the airport to the Cayes. The water taxi company was in the process of transporting several American tourists last night, and Cornel was on-duty. The best information to 7News is that two separate water taxi teams were supposed to carry out this operation, where one was supposed to bring the tourists from Ladyville.

Another company boat and crew left San Pedro, and the plan was that the two teams would to meet up at a location near Caye Caulker, and a change-over was to take place. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. The two vessels did travel to the meeting point, and according to the authorities, poor visibility on the sea caused the two captains to completely not realize that the vessels were on a collision course. The two boats slammed into each other and they both sustained extensive damages. Fortunately, the vessel carrying the tourists was still able to move after this crash, and the captain made an emergency diversion to Caye Caulker, just in time to secure his passengers.

The difficulty was with the smaller vessel. Its captain, identified as 36-year-old Mario Rosales, and his deckhand, Oscar Cornel Jr., were both flung from the boat which was basically shipwrecked. Police and Coast Guard were called in, and with the help of residents of Caye Caulker, search parties were formed. Later that night, one of the search parties found Rosales, who was stranded on an island. He managed to swim to safety, and he was rescued in mostly good health - but significantly the worse for wear after spending 4 to 5 hours in the sea on a cold night.

The search teams tried their best in the poor conditions, but they could not find Cornel. So, everyone suspended the search early this morning while it was still dark. There was hope that he would be found alive, but due to the weather conditions, and boat crash itself, there was worry that he was injured and in need of emergency medical help.

The search teams resumed early this morning, and sometime after midday, Cornel's body was found floating a few miles off the coastline of Caye Caulker. Coast Guard and police personnel transported him to Belize City this evening, and he was taken to the morgue for a post-mortem. Reports say he received injuries from the boat's propellor.