Two trawlers sink off-Goa coast; eight others with 39 members missing

Two trawlers sunk off-Goa coast and eight others with 39 crew members have gone missing in the cyclone-ravaged Arabian Sea.

Goa Fisheries director SC Verenkar today said the eight trawlers were accounted as missing mid-sea, a day after intense search operation was launched by defence forces to locate them.

The Fishermens' Society here said that two trawlers plying from Mallim jetty sank and one of the trawlers named 'Jeevan' was carrying 29 crew members, of which only six crew members could be rescued while 23 are missing mid-sea.

"We are searching for them and all possible resources are being used to trace them," Menino Afonso, chairman, Mandovi Fisheries Cooperative Society Limited, told PTI today.

Another trawler named 'St Fransic Xavier' carrying around ten fishermen also capsized mid sea, but all were rescued by nearby boats, Afonso said. The mid-sea rescue operations, which were initiated by the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy, got help from local fishermen, who rushed to help as the sea remained a bit calm.

Gusty winds on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning had left 35 trawlers stranded in the sea of which 24 could be contacted by evening hours.

Sensing disturbed weather, the trawlers had rushed to the nearest coasts and had landed in the Konkan belt. Initially no communication could be established but later they responded.