Two Axim fishermen killed at sea by lightning

Axim (Western Region), 15 Feb '99 -

Axim (Western Region), 15 Feb '99 - Two fishermen, Kwesi Annan, 26 and Kow Mensah, 27, died instantly at sea when lightning struck their canoe, "Cold Store", while on a fishing expedition with six others last Friday. The "Cold Store" crew uses drift-gill nets to fish for sharks and tuna. According to a spokesman for the owner of the canoe , Opanyin Nana Bassaw, he informed the police as soon as he heard of the 'sad news.' Annan has been going to sea since the age of seven and Mensah took to fishing when he was l5 years old. The bodies of the two, which were sent to the Axim Government Hospital, has since been buried at Shama, their hometown, in the Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan Area. The Axim-based district fisheries development officer, Mr Edmund Vanderpuye, described the incident is 'very strange' and the first of its kind in the history of fishing in the Nzema area. Touching on drowning at sea, Mr Vanderpuye disclosed that between 1996 and 1998, the district offices of the department at Axim, recorded three cases. He gave the break-down as two cases in 1996, none in 1997 and the latest in 1998 of one Papa Kwesi Ackon, 47, also from Shama, who took to fishing in his youthful years.