The Hindu Business Line : Coast Guard, Navy rescue crew members of Ocean Sekaya

The Coast Guard used helicopters to rescue 16 crew members from the merchant vessel Ocean Sekaya. The vessel was flying Panama flag and collided with rocks when its anchor chain cable parted. The vessel was on ballast with 21 crew members on board.

A Coast Guard release said here on Tuesday that the Karwar Port Officer passed the information regarding the distress to the Coast Guard District Headquarters No. 3 at New Mangalore. Following this, the Coast Guard Regional Headquarters at Mumbai and District Headquarters No. 11 at Goa were alerted.

Two Coast Guard helicopters took off from Goa undertook rescue operation to airlift the crew. Despite the rough weather, the helicopters evacuated 16 crew members. The remaining four were recovered by the Naval helicopter, and one crew member died. Later, all the rescued crew members were taken to Goa.

Fishermen rescued

In another incident, India Coast Guard Ship Annie Besant rescued six fishermen from the fishing boat Anupama, which was capsized in the sea off Malpe due to rough weather, on Monday evening.

These fishermen are from Uttara Kannada district of coastal Karnataka. Despite the rough weather, the ship continued the search in the area for distress boats and missing fishermen. It also assisted the boats to enter the harbour throughout the night.

The Coast Guard used two of its ships — ICGS Annie Besant and ICGS Kasturba Gandhi — for search and rescue operations of the stranded fishing boats in the sea off Malpe fishing harbour.

Nearly 400 fishing boats were stranded in the sea due to rough weather there. Most of the fishing boats have entered various fishing harbours and the New Mangalore Port.