The wreck was discovered at about 8:30 a.m.
Thursday when workers tending to the barge discovered the body of a boater on the vessel’s deck, said Capt. Samuel Martin of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The others were found nearby in a partially submerged 24-foot fishing boat. The men had planned to attend the Houma Oilman’s Fishing Invitational in Cocodrie, an annual three-day charity event this weekend, friends said. Bill Voss, 49, of Katy, Texas, was found on the barge deck, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said. A vice president of Houston-based W&T Offshore Inc., Voss was a Terrebonne Parish native who moved to Texas after Hurricane Katrina, said Joe Boudreaux, 55, of Houma, a rodeo organizer. Michael Carrere, 43, of Bayou Blue, a co-owner of Tarpon Rentals in Houma, owned the boat that wrecked, said Tony Fazzio of Houma, a friend of the men who was with them hours before their death. It is unknown whether Carrere was driving the boat when it wrecked, Wildlife and Fisheries agents said. Carey Meche, 52, of Metairie, and Rene Gauthier, 59, of Houston, both oil field salesman and Lawrence Flak, 54, of Conroe, Texas, a drilling engineer, were also found on the boat.
The men were last seen leaving Dulac at about 10 p.m., Bourgeois said. They had attended a crawfish boil at a camp there and were returning to a camp owned by Voss at Fisherman’s Retreat, a Dularge camp area, Fazzio said.