Twelve fishermen have died so far this year, five more than the seven who died during the 2022 octopus season. One of them disappeared with his boat at high sea, according to a report.
Reynaldo Manzanilla, 79 years old, was the first fisherman to die in 2023. On January 18 in the early morning, he drowned when a massive wave capsized his boat “Paulina”, with four coast residents who were fishing for kingfish with nets, at 27.78 km from the coast of Progreso.
The second death occurred due to illness when José Raúl Cetina Tec, 56 years old, died of a heart attack while working on the boat “Propemex 24”, which was fishing for octopus off the eastern Yucatecan coast, in the early hours of January 23, 2023.
In March, a Tabasco fisherman who was not identified and was between 35 and 40 years old was found hanging on the outside of the boat “Neldy” in the sheltered port of Yucalpetén. It was said that the deceased had financial problems.
On April 2, on the first weekend of the Easter holidays, fisherman Nazaret de Jesús B.A., 27, from Dzilam de Bravo, died when he was thrown from the truck that, with five other fishermen, overturned in the Tizimín-Buctzotz road, after a tire on the vehicle burst.
In May, a fisherman was found hanging in his house, in the Ismael García neighborhood, in this city. It was also presumed to have been suicide.
In June, when extreme heat hit Yucatan, fisherman G.C.C., 47, suffered a fatal heat stroke while unloading produce from a boat. He died in a hospital.
In July, at the beginning of the lobster fishing season, fisherman Víctor U., 22 years old and from Tabasco living in Dzilam de Bravo, died because he decompressed while diving in the Cabo Catoche area, in Quintana Roo.
On August 4, on the fourth day of the octopus fishing season, the ship “Frehscolín VIII” arrived at the Yucalpetén docks, bringing the body of Eliel Esaú Loo Canul, 25 years old and a resident of Teya, who died of a sudden heart attack in the early hours of the same day, after saying that since the night his lungs hurt and he couldn’t breathe. The boat had finished fishing for grouper.
Then, on September 3, Pedro Mariano Hernández Cervera, 62, from Progreso, was found dead floating in the dock of the sheltered port of Yucalpetén. The body had a blow to the forehead and body, so an investigation was opened for alleged homicide. That day it was said that he was killed during a fight that occurred on the ship “Gilbert VI”, which was going to sail to the pulpeada.
Days later, on September 16, Miguel Hernández Hernández, 54 years old and a fisherman from Chuburná Puerto, was found dead, with fishing lines tangled around his neck, in his boat when it landed on the beach of that police station. after going out to catch the octopus.
On October 9, Gabriel Pacheco Campos, “Achicadero,” a well-known fisherman from Río Lagarto, suffered a decompression while diving for octopus and lobster. He died when he was being taken by boat to that port in the East.
This November, on Saturday the 4th, fisherman Carlos Alberto Reyes Jiménez, 37 years old, from Tabasco who arrived for the octopus’s fishing season, died of a heart attack on the boat “Freshco Rosa”, from Yucalpetén, which anchored offshore weathering “the north of deceased” caused by the cold front 8.
His companions called him to dinner and, when he did not come, they went to check on him and found him dead in his bunk.