“It is not the man who takes the sea, it is the sea that takes the man“, this song by Renaud illustrates accurately the drama that Jean Yves Ber, a 57-year-old fisherman, experienced. This resident of Grande Pointe aux Piments, also known as Mam, drowned on Saturday 16 July at Bassin Canard where he used to go every morning for a fishing trip. His body was recovered on the morning of Sunday 17 July. The autopsy attributed his death to asphyxiation due to drowning.
It was his son, aged 30 years old and living in Petite Pointe aux Piments, who reported his disappearance to the police station of Trou aux Biches in the afternoon of Saturday 16 July. That day, around 9 am, he said, his father had gone, as usual, to Bassin Canard for a fishing trip. But at 3 p.m., his absence was prolonged, and the son then went to this place with other relatives where he recovered his fishing rod and his personal belongings.
It was around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 17, that the body of Jean Yvon Ber, who was floating in the water in front of the restaurant Le Recif Attitude, was fished out by elements of the National Coast Guard before being transported to the morgue of the Dr. A.G. Jeetoo Hospital, Port-Louis for autopsy. The autopsy, performed by Dr. Sudesh Kumar Gungadin, head of the forensic department of the police, attributed the death to asphyxiation due to drowning.
The funeral of Jean Yves Ber took place on Monday 18 July. After the funeral ceremony at the church of Jean Marie Vianney in Pointe aux Piments, he was buried in the cemetery of Bois Marchand in Terre-Rouge.
