Incident occurred 10 miles south of Cameron Parish, LDWF says
A 19-year-old Iberia Parish man died after the boat he was in partially sank in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles south of Cameron Parish, according to a press release from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Search crews with the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office started searching for two missing men in an 18-foot aluminum boat overnight, and located them about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, the release states.
Agents with the LDWF performed CPR on Derek Romero on the way back to Joseph’s Harbor at the Rockefeller Refuge, and continued to assist Acadian Ambulance and other search crews until a helicopter arrived on scene about 10:45, according to the release.
Romero was airlifted to South Cameron Hospital, where he was ultimately pronounced dead around noon today.
The other man in the boat, Shane Marin, 19, of St. Martin Parish, was taken to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and is in stable condition, the release states.
Both men were found wearing a life jacket, but the reason why the boat sank and the cause of Romero’s death are unknown, according to the release.
