José Luis Portales Villegas and Daniel Guerrero Martínez set sail on August 13 from the bay of Paredón, on the border of Chiapas with Oaxaca. Their boat, with which they fished, did not withstand the onslaught of the sea and one day later, on Friday, August 14, they shipwrecked in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.
After losing radio communication with their fishing party from Tonalá, in the Chiapas coastal region, state authorities activated the search in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar).
The worst was feared. The effects of the swell phenomenon, combined with the recent rains that have been felt in the southern region of the country, predicted that the trail of José Luis, 35, and Daniel, 54, would not be found anywhere.
Five days after losing contact with the fishermen, on August 19, a Semar aircraft repeating the search task 140 nautical miles from Puerto Madero, on the border with Guatemala, spotted the unusual: the two men clung to life aboard a cooler for shrimp storage.
Around 11:00, the two shipwrecked men spotted the helicopter flying overhead and made signals with a sack. The sailors noticed the signals and quickly activated the extraction operation.
The intense waves had dragged the two fishermen hundreds of nautical miles from their home and starting point. For more than 100 hours they had no food or water to survive; they had survived the capsizing of their boat at three in the morning, but feared they would not withstand hunger and thirst, amid a sun beating down on them and cold, murky nights.
“I don’t even want to remember, we had a bit of a hard time. We fell into the water and could do nothing but recover the cooler and improvised climbing onto it to try to save ourselves. A strong wave sank our boat and we fell into the sea,” recounted Mr. Daniel Guerrero while medical personnel took his vital signs.
“We didn’t even have a way to catch a fish or drink water, because we can’t drink salt water, nor did it rain enough to hydrate us. We thought we were dead until we saw the helicopter. We didn’t eat or drink anything,” he said.
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For Daniel, the event he has described as a miracle means his retirement. He will never return to the sea to fish.
While for José Luis, having shipwrecked and being able to tell his experience is a new chance at life. He has only been in fishing for five years and does not intend to abandon it. “It’s my life,” he summed up.
The Secretariat of the Navy reported that the two fishermen were placed on a boat to receive first aid and then airlifted to the naval base of Puerto Chiapas, in Tapachula, where they would meet with their families.
Medical reports indicated that both showed dehydration and moderate skin burns from ultraviolet rays, however, they were out of danger and would be referred to the appropriate areas for recovery.
Each year, this type of accident is reported in the waters of Chiapas and Oaxaca due to adverse weather conditions that surprise fishermen at sea. In 2022, the shipwreck of three fishermen on the border of both states represented an exhaustive search without positive results. The sea swallowed the boat and its crew.
The story of José Luis and Daniel has been the exception due to the rapid and continuous response of maritime authorities, who maintain increased surveillance on the Mexican Pacific coast due to the rise in boats put in the water for illicit tasks.
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