Pellerin, Hebert & friend act quickly; receive LDWF award

BATON ROUGE — A lot of ifs intertwined on a fateful evening just before dark May 7 when a young girl fell out of a capsized boat, then was saved from drowning off the beach along Grand Isle.

If Jeanerette outdoorsman Brock Pellerin, who was camping with family in his fifth-wheel, doesn’t spot a man with a cast net catch 5 pounds of shrimp earlier that day with one throw, dozens of people don’t descend on the beach with cast nets to start a shrimp-catching bonanza like few have ever seen.

If Facebook posts chronicling the bonanza as it unfolded aren’t posted, going viral in minutes, and if calls aren’t made by concerned citizens to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, then an LDWF Enforcement Division agent based in Houma isn’t dispatched to Grand Isle.

If Sgt. Stephen Rhodes doesn’t arrive to check for fishing licenses and any creel limit violations, he wouldn’t be able to see a vessel trying to get past the rock jetties and start taking on water before capsizing, spilling nine people into the water shortly after 6:30 p.m.

If Pellerin, 40-year-old supervisor at his father’s business, Byron’s Cabinets, in Jeanerette, and his friends Craig Hebert, who lives between Lydia and Patoutville, and Grant Hebert of Arnaudville, aren’t there to help Rhodes get to his tow vehicle quickly and assist him in launching his boat, that young girl may be dead.

“It’s kind of amazing, how everything happened. Everything happened for a reason. Everything good happens for a reason, I guess,” Pellerin said.

According to a prepared statement released on May 8 by LDWF: “Sgt. Rhodes was picked up by some good Samaritans in an ATV to transport him to his truck to launch his vessel. The same good Samaritans helped him launch his vessel. Sgt. Rhodes made his way to the capsized vessel that had eight people on top the hull. Those people notified Sgt. Rhodes about a missing 7-year-old girl still in the water. …

“Sgt. Rhodes jumped in the water and located the young girl under the capsized vessel. He got her onto his vessel and she was unresponsive. Sgt. Rhodes then started CPR on the young girl and was able to revive her and get her breathing.”

For their quick-thinking volunteer efforts during the emergency, Pellerin and the Heberts each were awarded a Citizens Meritorious Service Award plaque during a Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission regular meeting June 2 at the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries headquarters in Baton Rouge.

About the presentation, Craig Hebert, a sugar cane farmer, said, “It was very nice. They went out of their way to recognize us.”

“It was pretty nice. Like Craig said, they didn’t really have to do that. It makes you feel good for what you did,” Pellerin said.

The lifelong Jeanerette resident who pulls his RV over to Grand Isle in late spring every year to relax, fish and join others from across the Teche Area and southwest Louisiana vividly remembers that Saturday afternoon. After Pellerin saw the man’s cast net catch, he had a feeling something was happening in the surf.

Everybody around, including a handful of youngsters that were with him, grabbed a cast net and started catching shrimp that were crammed into ice chest after ice chest. Pellerin filled a 40-quart ice chest himself on one cast with an 8-foot net.

“It was just insane,” he said.

Rhodes showed up on the wild scene along the beach where the shrimp were running and got his attention to help with confiscated shrimp caught illegally or over the 100-pound limit per person, Pellerin said. The confiscated shrimp would go to the highest qualified bidder.

Enforcement efforts were suspended when Rhodes observed the boat in distress. The response was one for the books, as it developed.

In the LDWF’s prepared statement one day after the rescue, Col. Chad Hebert, head of the LDWF Enforcement Division, praised Rhodes, then said, “I would also like to thank all of the good Samaritans that assisted in this successful rescue. Sgt. Rhodes was on patrol by himself and these good Samaritans helped him perform this rescue faster. That time saved probably made it possible to resuscitate the young girl.”

Pellerin agreed their actions saved precious, critical minutes.

“If I had to guess, every bit of 15 minutes. I don’t think she (the victim) had much longer. Once he got there, I don’t think she had five more minutes,” Pellerin said, noting he and his buddies watched the rescue from the beach.

After the victim was pulled into the boat, he said, “She was out of it. It took two rounds of CPR.”

Rhodes’ LDWF tow vehicle, a pickup truck, was 10 football fields away on the beach when the victim’s boat capsized. Pellerin and the Heberts offered the enforcement agent a ride to his vehicle in their ATV, a side by side, which Craig Hebert drove while the enforcement agent, Pellerin and Grant Hebert, rode.

Then the seasoned boaters and veteran fishermen further hastened the launching of the boat.

Rhodes climbed aboard to drive the vessel off the boat trailer, Pellerin hurried to remove the transom saver while Craig Hebert was unhooking the winch on the bow of the boat before the boat trailer was backed into the water by Grant Hebert.

Rhodes sped to the scene, where his training kicked in and he responded heroically.

“We probably saved him a good amount of time. We thought we’d do what was right, what anybody else would do. We didn’t know it was going to be a life-saving event,” Pellerin said.

The LDWF Enforcement Division agent cranked up his boat’s motor and rushed with the recovering girl aboard to Bridgeside Marina. Pellerin and the Heberts met him to see if more assistance was needed but by that time emergency medical personnel and the local fire department was at the scene.

The girl was taken to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, where she made a full recovery.

There was a heartfelt moment on the beach between Pellerin and Rhodes, who didn’t realize right away who he was.

“When he got back, I shook his hand. He hugged me. He was very emotional. I told him, ‘Thank you for your service,’ ” Pellerin said.