Tag Archives: Xavier Vega
For commercial fishermen, November is the cruelest month
November trips can be treacherous, and the forecast was unnerving, 9-foot swells in the afternoon and gusts as strong as 40 miles per hour. But the 56-foot F/V Leonardo, its diesel engines groaning after a series of repairs, steamed out to fishing grounds 24 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard. It would not return, and three fishermen, Mark Cormier Jr., Gerald Bretal, and his step-son Xavier Vega, were never found. Ernesto Garcia, the lone survivor, was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter crew at dusk, about two hours after the ship capsized. >click to read< 07:33
Fishing Boat Sinks 24 off Vineyard – November 24, 2019. The fishing boat F/V Leonardo out of New Bedford sank Sunday afternoon 24 miles southwest of the Vineyard. 
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued one mariner from the vessel. A search and rescue operation is underway for three others. Sector Southeast New England received an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) signal at 3:18 pm, F/V Leonard, >click for 10 posts<
F/V Leonardo found off Martha’s Vineyard
Fishing vessel Leonardo that capsized and sank with four fishermen aboard on Nov. 24 has been found, according to the Massachusetts Environmental Police. “We located and identified the sunken fishing vessel on Sunday morning,” Major Patrick Moran said Monday. The Leonardo is a 57-foot scalloper, based out of New Bedford. The vessel sank in choppy seas some 24 miles southwest off Martha’s Vineyard. Major Moran said the boat was found 140 feet down near where it was reported missing and was “sitting perfectly upright.” >click to read< 10:55
Opinion: The high price of our food
The deaths of three fishermen in the sinking of the scalloper F/V Leonardo out of New Bedford this week reminds us that not all fish come from “farms” in an industry where injury and deaths are no strangers.,, Take a walk past the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial and read tablets listing thousands of names In New Bedford, the names of Mark Cormier Jr., 35, Jerry Bretal, 51, and his stepson Xavier Vega, 29, have been added to the grim roll in a city that has mourned often over the last three centuries. >click to read< 18:44
This tragedy was unimaginable for us, like it is for all fishing families’ — Alisha Marques, sister of lost New Bedford fisherman Mark P. Cormier Jr.
Coping with a tragedy “unimaginable for us, like it is for all fishing families,” Alisha Marques, the sister of Mark P. Cormier Jr., has started a GoFundMe page in honor of her brother and “lost fishermen.” Cormier, 35, is one of three crew members lost at sea Sunday after the New Bedford-based scalloper F/V Leonardo went down in churning waters off Martha’s Vineyard. >Click to read< Please >click here to donate< in the memory of Mark Cormier. 06:36
