A Portland man drowned in the East Outlet of Moosehead Lake on Saturday.
Truc Huynh, 40, had been fishing on a raft with a friend in the Kennebec River outlet on the east side of Moosehead Lake around noon, according to Mark Latti, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The two men decided that they wanted to change fishing locations, and moved the raft through whitewater rapids, where the raft capsized and threw the two men off, Latti said.
Huynh, who was not wearing a life jacket when the raft capsized, was swept under by the current and did not resurface, according to Latti. His fishing partner had been wearing a life jacket when the raft capsized and was able to make it to shore to call for help.
A search crew later located Huynh’s body where it had become submerged downstream at around 4 p.m. on Saturday, and his body was recovered at around 4:20 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. His body was transported to a local funeral home, Latti said.
Huynh was a Vietnamese immigrant, graduate of Portland High School and a graduate of Bowdoin College, according to the Portland Press Herald. He was granted a George Mitchell scholarship after graduating from Portland High School in 2001, an award that he told the Press Herald in 2019 made it possible for him to pursue a degree in government and legal studies.
Huynh was also well known for his community-minded spirit, and in 2019, he and a friend raised $16,000 to award to five nonprofit organizations that had helped Huynh’s family settle in Maine.
Huynh was also involved in his family’s restaurant, Phoever Maine Vietnamese Bar & Grill.
Although additional information is not available at this time, the circumstances of Huynh’s death remain under investigation.