The search has resumed for a missing fisherman who police say was shooting a YouTube video when he went missing near Rotary Park in Ajax on Thursday.
Durham Regional Police were first alerted to the missing boater at around 2 p.m. when they received a report about an empty, 17-foot aluminum fishing boat drifting off the park shoreline.
Officers arrived to find the boat’s motor running.
“We immediately started looking and other emergency services were there as well. That search continued thorough the day yesterday and well into the evening,” police spokesperson David Selby told CP24.
Crews called off the search for a few hours but returned to the water early Friday morning.
“Obviously we’re very concerned here,” Selby said. “There’s a missing man, he’s a fisherman and his boat is there but we don’t know where he is.”
The fisherman, identified by police as Toronto resident Kevin Wong, was reportedly filming a video with a friend when he disappeared. Police say the friend was out on the water in a separate boat and lost sight of the 31-year-old shortly before noon.
He has been described as an Asian male with a thin build who stands about five-foot-ten. Police say he has a black beard and was wearing a blue shirt and white running shoes when he was last seen.
A number of search and rescue teams and resources are involved in the efforts, including the Canadian Coast Guard, Durham Regional Police and a Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue helicopter from the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, Ont.
Pickering Fire Services, the Toronto Police Service Marine Unit and the Pickering Auxiliary Rescue Association are also assisting.
“At this point we’re still following the procedures that we have in place when we get information like this so we’re continuing to search,” Selby said.
“We tend to be out there until we find him.”
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is being asked to call police.
