At least 21 fishermen have been rescued after their trawler caught fire in the Eastern Cape. It is understood that the fishing vessel caught ablaze approximately one nautical mile offshore of Noordhoek, Gqeberha, on Monday. The fishing vessel had departed the Port of Port Elizabeth earlier, heading to fishing grounds.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Gqeberha station commander Mark Dawson said they responded to the incident just before 6pm. “NSRI Gqeberha duty controllers, Telkom Maritime Radio Services, and vessels at sea in the area at the time, intercepted a Mayday distress call on VHF marine channel 16 – from the local fishing vessel Silver Dorado – reporting a fire onboard and all of her 21 crew preparing to abandon the vessel. Dawson said Telkom Maritime Radio Services broadcast an all ships alert on marine VHF channel 16, relaying the Mayday distress call, alerting vessels in the area to divert to assist survivors reported to be abandoning the casualty fishing vessel.
“A local fishing vessel, Leguga, arriving on the scene, launched their own life raft to assist the fishermen casualties who were in the water near their burning fishing vessel. All 21 fishermen had abandoned the burning vessel at sea.” He said at least another five fishing vessels, which had intercepted the Mayday call, arrived on the scene where the fishing vessel Legugu had, at that stage, managed to recover 12 fishermen from their life raft and from the sea. “All 21 casualty crew were rescued by the local fishing vessels that had gone to her assistance.
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All 21 crew were reported to be accounted for and safe. We believe that all 21 fishermen are South African. “It appears that a fire from undetermined causes spread fast after being discovered onboard by the skipper.
We believe all remaining 20 crew were in bunks resting in preparation for reaching the fishing grounds. “We believe the skipper alerted his crew and they were forced to abandon ship without having time to launch their own life raft, but the skipper was able to dispatch a Mayday distress VHF radio call,” Dawson said.
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