One dead, 3 missing as ship rams TN boat off Kerala coast

Madurai: A deep sea fishing vessel registered in Tamil Nadu with her six-member crew sank off the Kerala coast – 45 nautical miles off the Kozhikode – on Wednesday night after it was rammed by a ship. Of the six crew members, two were rescued by naval agencies while three are still missing while the body of the boat owner has been recovered by naval agencies. Search is on for the missing fishermen, according to fisheries officials at Kanyakumari.

The fishing boat, Emmanuvel, with registration number TN15/MM/4426, owned by X Antony of Chinnathurai near Colachel, sailed on a fishing expedition from Kochi fishing harbour on October 11 around 6 am. Besides the boat owner, Antony, the crew consisted of P Remmiyas and A Xavier from Chinnathurai in Thoothoor panchayat of Kanyakumari coast, V Karthik from Radhapuram in Tirunelveli district and Johnson and Prince from Pozhiyoor in Kerala. By October 11, 9 pm they were off Kozhikode coast and sailing when the boat was rammed by a passing ship. The fishing boat which suffered extensive damage to the hull started listing and sank till the bow. The ship did not stop and sailed away from the spot.

Two of the fishermen, Karthik and Xavier from Thoothoor, who managed to get hold of the debris floating from the boat, were rescued by Indian Coast Guard who undertook a search operation on October 12 after learning about the accident. The body of Antony was recovered by navy divers on Saturday morning and taken to Vapore government hospital in Kozhikode district for postmortem.

Deputy director of fisheries, Lamek Jayakumar said that the boat had not sunk completely and search was on for the three other fishermen, Prince and Johnson from Pozhiyoor in Kerala and Remmiyas from Chinnathurai in Kanyakumari district. “The naval agencies are still searching for the missing fishermen”, he said.

P Justin Antony of International Fishermen Development Trust at Kanyakumari said that such accidents had happened in the past when ships rammed against deep sea fishing vessels. The ship did not even stop to help the sinking boat, he pointed out.