By Paul Hutchings
TC•Media
ANCHOR POINT, NL – A bizarre accident has taken the life of a Northern Peninsula fisherman.
Just after 3 p.m. on Monday, May 7, a large shrimp container fell on Harris Genge while he was on the deck of the MV Krista Kaye about 13 miles off Port aux Choix, crushing the 57-year-old to death.
Relative Roland Genge, also a fisherman, guessed it was probably about 6,000-7,000 pounds of shrimp that fell on Harris, who said the man had been fishing for at least 30 years.
Roland said the close-knit community is devastated.
“Everybody got mixed feelings out here, we all got pretty silent,” he said. “This community is pretty close, he lived a few houses down the road from us.”
Police say foul play is not suspected. Roland called the deceased man a jack-of-all-trades who was married with two children, one who lives in a nearby community and the other who lives overseas.
Roland said the man fished with his brother-in-law. The two had spent most of the winter fixing the boat up in anticipation of the season.
“They just got their boat made over, they put a fish box on board to make the work easier,” he said. “They spent a lot of money on that boat and as far as I know it was their first time out.”
RCMP spokesman Const. Scott Hynes of the Port Saunders detachment said the investigation is ongoing.
