The search resumed Thursday morning for two boaters presumed dead after their boat capsized in an Aroostook County lake.
The Maine Warden Service continued looking Thursday for Eric Sherwood, 43, and Mark Chambers, 53, who were last seen Tuesday when their fishing boat overturned in choppy waters on Square Lake in Square Lake Township. The body of another man has been recovered and a fourth man survived and was found on shore Wednesday morning.
Wardens searched a debris field without success Thursday, a warden service statement said. As of 9:30 p.m. Thursday, the missing fishermen had still not been located, according to a dispatcher for the Houlton State Police headquarters. Details on when the search would resume were not available.
A game warden pilot spent Thursday scanning the lake from the air to evaluate the water surface and any points of interest for divers, according to the warden service. The warden service dive team used side scan sonar Thursday to search areas of the lake bottom.
Game wardens, divers and a warden service aircraft have been at Square Lake, near Eagle Lake, since early Wednesday searching for the boaters. Water surface temperatures of 58 degrees and high winds have made the search difficult.
The four men had been fishing in a 12-foot boat with a motor and planned to fish the passage between Square Lake and Eagle Lake Tuesday afternoon. Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, the boat began to take on water during very windy conditions and overturned, the warden service said. The men clung to the drifting boat until dark. Charles Guimond, 23, of Fort Fairfield was wearing a life jacket and eventually made his way to shore. The body of Martin Chambers, 56, was recovered by game wardens Wednesday afternoon.
Wardens say it is presumed that Sherwoood and Mark Chambers were not wearing life jackets and did not survive the cold water temperatures. Mark and Martin Chambers are brothers, the warden service said.
This incident brings Maine’s boating-related deaths this year to 10, already outpacing the six boating deaths in the state in 2016. The warden service reported one boating fatality in 2015, two in 2014, three in 2013, and two in 2012. In 2011, eight people were killed while boating.
In the Coast Guard’s Northeast District, which includes all six New England states as well as northern New Jersey and New York City, recreational boating deaths increased to 55 last year, up 62 percent from 34 in 2015.
Forty-five of the 55 people who died were not wearing life jackets. Forty of the people drowned and 29 of the deaths involved a paddlecraft, the Coast Guard said.
Gillian Graham can be contacted at:
ggraham@pressherald.com
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