KINGSTON, Jamaica — General Manager of Rainforest Seafoods, Jerome Miles, is remaining hopeful that the 15 Honduran crew members from the company’s missing Falling Star lobster fishing vessel are alive as he called for the nation to pray for their safe return. 

Speaking to OBSERVER ONLINE this afternoon for the latest on the men who have been missing since July 6, Miles said there was still no good news as they have not been located. 

However, he expressed optimism that the men could be safe, while he called on people to pray for the Hondurans’ safe return.

“Most people now, what they really do for us is to pray with us for the safe return of these 15 gentlemen. It’s an experienced crew. They have all the safety gear that they would have possibly needed on the boat, so we still hoping that there is a good end to this story,” Miles said.

The lobster fishing vessel was reportedly returning from dry-docking/routine maintenance overseas when it ceased sending tracking signals on the afternoon of July 6.

The last location of the vessel up to the point of its disappearance was 30 miles west of the Pedro Banks.

Read: Jamaican vessel with 15 onboard missing since Tuesday

Read: There’s hope!

Miles disclosed that five boats belonging to Rainforest Seafoods have been deployed to assist with the search. 

“We have five other boats and we have deployed those boats to search a grid that the US Embassy have given to us and said that this is the likely area — based on their reconnaissance the tide and wind and so on — where they would have drifted either on the boat or raft. We have searched that grid and so far we have not found anything,” he explained.

The Rainforest Seafoods general manager also acknowledged that they have been assisted in the search by the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Coast Guard, the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) marine police, as well as private vessels.

“The area where they went missing is not too far from where boats would be fishing normally,” he noted.

The company, in a statement on Saturday, said that, in addition to being assisted by the US Embassy and the JDF Coast Guard, there was help from their counterparts from Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands to search for the vessel.

Miles, in the meantime, said the company has made contact with the families of the 15 Honduran fishermen, who were all contractors of Rainforest Seafoods. 

“… We are providing whatever support we can. They are families of fishermen so they understand the risk involved. The sea can be very unpredictable, but they are hopeful just like we are,” he shared.

Asked whether the search has moved from a rescue mission to a recovery mission, Miles said there was nothing to suggest at this stage that the men were dead. 

“We are still considering it as a rescue mission, because there are some things that could have happened. The boat could have gotten in trouble, and they got picked up by other vessels and taken to some other port we haven’t been able to make contact (with) as yet,” he asserted. 

But he admitted that, “as the days go by”, the likelihood of the mission converting “from a rescue mission to a recovery mission”, will increase. 

“… But we haven’t seen anything yet to suggest that the boat definitely sank and everybody has died,” Miles insisted.

“So far as we are aware, no body has been found… (There is) no credible evidence either from the coast guard or the marine police,” said the general manager.