Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Aug 17: A fisherman, who accidentally fell off his fishing boat 'Krishna Maruti' at about 20 nautical miles off Panambur beach and the other crew members who were unaware of this mishap, was miraculously rescued by New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) authorities. ‎This incident occurred on Thursday, August 16.

As soon as it came to the knowledge of the crew members of the fishing vessel that their co-worker, Nagaraj, a native of Tamil Nadu, was missing, they alerted all the other boats in the area and also the police about the tragedy and they themselves searched for the man in vain.

In the meantime, a specific message of a person in distress being spotted in mid-sea by a merchant vessel passing the shipping lanes off the west coast was received by the NMPT authorities and they swung into action. Captain S R Patnaik, deputy conservator of NMPT observed that the coast guard vessel which was far off from the location might take time to reach the spot, hence he took a bold decision to instruct and guide a passing merchant ship MT Pacific Lagoon bearing a Liberian flag on its way to Port Fujairah, UAE to the location to rescue the fisherman.

The Captain of MT Pacific Lagoon obliged and located the fisherman at about 5 pm with the location details sent by NMPT and rescued the fisherman. The ship then took a detour to come to the mouth of NMPT wherein the fisherman was shifted to NMPT pilot vessel where he was given first aid.

This monsoon season NMPT has been proactive in avoiding natural disasters off the sea coast by giving unhindered access to all fishing vessels to the port and have earned the goodwill of the fishing community of Dakshina Kannada.