One dead, dozens missing as South Korean trawler sinks off eastern Russia
Seven crew members rescued and one body recovered, but dozens of fishermen remain missing in the freezing waters of western Bering Sea
South Korean officials expressed fear yesterday of a huge death toll among more than 50 fishermen who remain missing after their ship sank amid high waves in the freezing waters of the western Bering Sea.
The crew included 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector, the official said. Russian authorities said there were 62 people aboard the ship, which sank on Monday in the western part of the Bering Sea, near Russia.
The South Korean ministry official said it's believed that the ship, which was catching pollock, began to list after stormy weather caused seawater to flood its storage areas. Kim Kang-ho from Sajo Industries, the canned tuna company that owns the ship, said the 2,000-ton vessel was 36 years old. An official from South Korea's foreign ministry, who refused to be named citing office rules, said yesterday morning that the death toll was expected to rise because rescuers failed to find any of the missing passengers. Four fishing ships that were operating nearby continue to search for survivors, but harsh weather conditions have limited their mobility, the official said.
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won told a cabinet meeting that the government will work with Russia to speed up the rescue efforts.
Authorities in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the rescued fishermen were well and would be taken to South Korea once the weather improves.
"The condition of the fishermen who were rescued is fine," Artur Rets, chief of the rescue centre at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky port, told the RIA Novosti news agency.