BATON ROUGE — State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents successfully rescued an overdue boater Feb. 20 in the Mississippi River near East Carroll Parish.

Agents received a report around 4 p.m. of an overdue boater on the Mississippi River in the Bunches Bend Cutoff area about 10 miles north of Lake Providence. Agents responded to the area and were able to use the services of a local pilot to locate the overdue boater from the air. 

Agents arrived to the coordinates given by the pilot around 6:30 p.m. and found the missing 81-year-old Oak Grove man with severe injuries and a damaged vessel. Agents stabilized the man and took him to the nearest boat launch, where an ambulance was waiting to take him to a local hospital. Agents believe the operator of the vessel hit a tree making the vessel inoperable and leaving the operator with severe injuries to the face and body.