Contact: Sgt. Gregory Rhodes, Fish & Wildlife Enforcement, 302-739-9913 or 302-542-6102, or Joanna Wilson, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Fish and Wildlife Enforcement investigating boating accident

FLEMINGS LANDING (July 18, 2011) – DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement agents are investigating a late Sunday evening boating accident that left three people in the water clinging to their overturned fishing boat for about 11 hours.

According to Enforcement spokesman Sgt. Gregory Rhodes, the investigation indicates that Joseph Phillips Jr., age 51, Dorothy Griffin, age 54, and Richard Bush, age 49, all of Middletown, rowed out into the Delaware Bay from the Port Penn-Augustine Beach area in a small open boat without a motor around 8 p.m. Sunday evening, July 17.

The fishing boat capsized when one of the passengers stood up, pitching all three into the water, Rhodes said. None of the three were wearing life jackets. They were pulled from the water early this morning by a local crabber who spotted them and their boat off Woodland Beach. The crabber picked them up, called for assistance and took them to Flemings Landing to meet an ambulance. Griffin and Bush were treated at Bayhealth – Kent General Hospital and released, Rhodes said. Phillips declined treatment.

“When their boat capsized, these three anglers did the right thing: they stayed with their boat till help arrived,” said Rhodes, who also serves as Delaware’s Boating Safety Officer. “The outcome could have been much worse.”

The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Section serves as the lead investigating agency on boating accidents and incidents in Delaware, which consistently has one of the lowest boating accident rates in the country.

Vol. 41, No. 272