Because of approaching severe weather, the Maine Warden Service postponed Monday’s search for two fisherman who have been missing for nearly a week and are presumed drowned in an Aroostook County lake.

Eric Sherwood, 43, and Mark Chambers, 53, both of Fort Fairfield, were last seen June 13 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 the morning after the boat capsized.

Cpl. Mike Joy, team leader of the Maine Warden Service Dive Team, said the search efforts were suspended Monday through Tuesday afternoon because of the severe weather in the forecast. The weather conditions would make it unsafe for divers, but the team will re-evaluate conditions Tuesday and could resume the search Tuesday afternoon if the weather allows.

The dive team has been using side-scan sonar to look for Sherwood and Chambers. The warden service has searched 600 acres of the lake bottom with side-scan sonar. The search area is 2 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, with depths fluctuating from 20 to 90 feet. The warden service would like to search another 450-acre section of the lake when weather permits.

The search area was determined by wind direction and statements given to authorities by the only person to survive the incident.

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 on the afternoon of June 13. Around 4 p.m. that day, 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 drifted to shore, where he was spotted at daybreak by warden service pilot Gary Dumond. The body of Martin Chambers, 56, also of Fort Fairfield, was recovered by game wardens later that afternoon after it also was spotted by Dumond.

Copy the Story Link