Coast Guard ends search for fisherman

Published 12:30 am Thursday, March 10, 2011

The search for a missing fisherman ended Wednesday afternoon, but a second fisherman was found alive in the southwestern corner of the Pamlico Sound on Wednesday morning.

The decision to end the search for William Foster, 22, of Pamlico Beach, was a difficult one to make, according to the Coast Guard. Unless there are new developments, the search will not be resumed.

The Coast Guard identified the rescued fisherman as Matt Jamison, 20, also of Pamlico Beach. He was found alive near Maw Point in Pamlico County about 7 a.m., according to the Coast Guard. The Harvest Time, the 27-foot-long boat that Jamison and Foster were in also was found, but it had capsized. The two fisherman had been oystering. Some media outlets identified the rescued fisherman as Matt Jameson, 23.

The fishermen were reported missing about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday by Foster’s father when they did not appear at Wright’s Creek on the Pungo River as expected, according to Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Kevin Sullivan. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina watchstanders learned of the missing fisherman about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, with its crew using night-vision goggles, searched for them overnight Tuesday. A 24-foot boat from Coast Guard Station Hobucken, members of the Bath Volunteer Fire Department and several private boats assisted in the overnight search, Sullivan said.

“We relaunched this morning for a search at sunrise,” Sullivan said about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

A passing boat, Island Girl, found Jamison sitting on the hull of the capsized boat about 7:15 a.m. Wednesday and rescued him, Sullivan said. Jamison was found “cold, but in reasonably good condition,” Sullivan said.

Jamison was transported to CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern to be evaluated. Jamison said Foster dove under the capsized boat to retrieve life jackets, but he did not surface, Sullivan said.

The Sydney Dive Team, working from Pedro, a search-and-rescue helicopter based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, searched under the capsized Harvest Time late Wednesday morning and in the early afternoon, but divers found no sign of Foster, Sullivan said.

Beginning Tuesday night and through Wednesday morning, the Coast Guard searched two separate areas, one near the Neuse River junction buoy, near the western end of the Pamlico Sound, Neuse River and Bay River converge. It was there the two fishermen were last seen (about 1 p.m. Tuesday) and heard from (about 2 p.m. Tuesday), according to Sullivan. The other area searched was Wright’s Creek on the Pungo River, where the fishermen’s boat, the Harvest Time, is based.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

email author More by Mike