VERMILION BAY, La. (KLFY, WGNO) — The United Cajun Navy is seeking more volunteer boaters to search Vermilion Bay after additional Seacor Power life vests washed ashore Monday.
It was the second day in a row that volunteers recovered life vests and other debris from the capsized Seacor Power while searching for the remaining seven missing crewmembers.
The United Cajun Navy also announced they were joined in their search over the weekend by a Texas non-profit search and rescue crew, Team 409 Search and Rescue.
Volunteers have been launching boats from the Harbor Light Marina at 8239 La. 56 in Chauvin, La.
“We got a bunch of boats out here today. We have airboats, we got jet boats, surface drives. We got a couple areas out there on the barrier islands that we’re working. They’ve been finding some life vests. We also found a couple of other items that lead us to believe that we’re in an area that we could be onto something,” said Todd Terrell, President of United Cajun Navy.
Two more life vests were found this morning, in addition to two massive pillars with “Seacor Power” written on them. Terrell says the items they found are keeping the volunteers hopeful.
“One of the life vests was actually torn pretty good, as if it was torn in half, you know? A couple of them that were found yesterday were new vests, so they obviously have not been used before. But the ones they found this morning, the ones that they’re out there with now that they’re coming in with this afternoon were torn, so they were definitely on something,” said Terrell.
Terrell says 56 boats came out this morning, and they’re also using cadaver dogs to help search the barrier islands. He says so far, they’ve covered more than 300 square miles. Terrell says they’ll head back out tomorrow at 7:30 in the morning.