A young man from Samatau drowned last Wednesday while free diving for fish with friends.
Siaki Togia was 21 years old.
Vaivai Lei’ataua from Manono said there were six of them who went out fishing on one boat with Mr. Togia at about ten o’clock that evening.
“We left Manono and when we stopped at Samatau, we jumped out of the boat and started diving to look for fish,” he said.
“We used four torches but when it came time to head back to the boat, we realised that only three torches are showing up in the darkness of night.
“We were not sure at the time which of us was missing until we finally realised that it was Siaki.” He said they started looking for him at about 2.30am.
“The part of the sea where we went out fishing that night was really deep and we could hardly reach the bottom because we couldn't hold our breath for that long.”
“Even though we couldn’t find him and knew something had happened to Siaki, we still kept on searching for his body.”
He said they could not contact their families or anyone else for help when the incident happened.
“We have a phone but we were out of credit and we don’t have any wireless as well on the boat.”
The men stayed out at sea all night, and continued their search for Mr. Togia well after dawn.
“We found his body, deep, at the bottom when the sun came up on Thursday morning. We found him, lying dead in the sea, at about half past seven.”
Like many, Mr. Lei’ataua and others had paid $20 to hire the boat for one night. There was no safety gear. “Not at all....no wireless, no life safe jackets...only torches.”
Mr. Lei’ataua said Mr. Togia was an accomplished diver but must have dived beyond his depth.
“I think Siaki was heading very low to the bottom but when he was heading back up, he found he couldn’t reach the top for air,” he said.
Recovering the body of Mr. Togia proved almost impossible, he said. “When we saw his body, we dropped the rope down first to where he was laying.
And we tried to lift him up as much as we can but it was very difficult because no one can go down that far.”
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But, somehow, in the end, he said, “we did it.”
Mr. Lei’ataua said they brought his body to his family home and they held a short family service before taking him to the National Hospital at Moto’otua last Thursday morning.
Mr. Lei’ataua said he felt saddened by the death of Mr. Togia, who he said was a very good friend. A former school mate, who did not want to be named, said that Mr. Togia was a very good boy to his family.
“That is his life, fishing! And he was very smart as well when we were in school,” said the friend.
“When I asked him why he did not want to find a good job in town; he said ‘What is the point of being smart but not getting a good salary - I prefer fishing so that I can have a lots of money to buy and put food on my family’s table, and feed my parents.”
The boat owner denied that there was no safety gear on the boat.
“Yes, all the safety equipment and first aid are all inside the boats for when problems arise,” he said.
“But, for any further details you can come to Manono to where the boat is at.”
Mr. Togia is the second person to has died from drowning during the past two weeks. Questions were sent yesterday to the Senior Officer of Fisheries, Maria Sapatu, relating to the sea safety and fishing vessel registration in Samoa.
“Judging from your information requested “Registration of Vessels” and “Vessel Safety” these activities are mainly the role of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (M.W.T.I.),” she responded.
“The Fisheries Division just issues fishing licenses. Once the fishing vessel is registered and sea safety and sea worthiness is passed by M.W.T.I.” The Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure said they would comment on Monday about the same questions sent to the Fisheries Division.
Police Commissioner Fauono Talalelei Tapu confirmed the details of the diving accident “It was last Thursday afternoon that the hospital contacted the Ministry of Police about this incident. “Police investigated what had happened and confirmed that it was a drowning.”
He confirmed the name and age of the man as Siaki Togia of Samatau, 21 years of age.
“They went out fishing at about half past ten on Wednesday night and there were four of them, with other males from Manono.”
“When he did not turn up they started to look for Siaki but it was too dark so they waited for daylight.”
“They found him a few minutes past the hour of seven last Thursday morning in the part of the sea where they were fishing.
“It was very deep according to those who were with Siaki.” - With reporting by Vaisuamumu Mulipola
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