MANGALURU: Two fishermen drowned and four others are reportedly missing after their boat capsized near an estuary, about 8 nautical miles off the Mangaluru coast, late on Monday evening.
Locals managed to rescue 19 fishermen by using a dinghy. According to the rescued fishermen, the boat ‘Shreeraksha’ with 25 persons on board, capsized as it was overloaded with their catch, coupled with a turbulent sea and gales.
The victims are Preetham, 28, and Panduranga Suvarna, 58, residents of Bokkapatana. The coastal security police and local fishermen launched a search operation that was suspended on Tuesday evening. The search will resume on Wednesday morning for Mohammed Hassainar, 28, Mohammed Ansar, 32, Chinthan, 21, and Ziaullah, 36.
Shreeraksha, a deep-sea fishing boat registered in 2013, had sailed from Mangaluru fishing harbour, early on Monday, and was expected to return on Tuesday morning. The boat was carrying close to 20 tonnes of fish .
According to survivors, the boat sank in minutes.
“We were completely clueless as to what happened to the boat, but were lucky enough to get into the dinghy to save ourselves,” they recalled. The fishermen spent the night on the dinghy, and due to gales, it sailed about 5 km away from the accident spot. When the boat’s wireless communication was lost, the owners alerted nearby fishing boats. A boat named Chamundeshwari found 19 fishermen sailing in the dinghy around 7am on Tuesday, and rescued them.
When the incident took place, three were inside the cabin, three others were sleeping on a net placed on the deck while the rest were on the other side of the boat.