Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Oct 29: Ganga Ganesh fishing boat owned by Mithun Kumar, which had sailed into the sea for fishing with six fishermen on board from Malpe at 10 pm on October 19 and Swarnajyothi Boat owned by Santosh Kunder were undertaking fishing near Vasco, Goa, when Swarna Jyothi Boat got stranded in the middle of the sea due to technical problems. When Ganga Boat fishermen tried to rescue the stranded boat, its rope got entangled in the fan of Ganga Ganesh Boat and that boat too stopped functioning.

Both the boats were anchored at the spot. As the anchor of Swarnajyothi Boat got severed, the boat moved to the north because of wind. Swarnajyothi boat then contacted other boats. A commercial boat, 'Hariharadhan' bound for Kochi came forward to help the fishermen at 6.30 pm on October 26. As a fisherman from Odisha, Shankar, was facing health problems, he needed to be rescued first. When the people in 'Hariharadhan' boat bound for Kochi threw life jacket into the water, another person of Odisha origin jumped into the water to catch hold of the life jacket and went missing. The boatmen immediately brought this to the notice of Coast Guard over wireless.

The Coast Guard boat from Karwar came there at night and Shankar, who was sick, was sent to Kochi by Hariharadhan boat. The other three were rescued and picked by the Coast Guard boat. The Coast Guard then began to search for the missing fisherman. During this operation, Coast Guard boat came across Ganga Ganesh boat that was moving aimlessly northward because of the severed anchor and all the six fishermen were rescued on October 27.

The Coast Guard continued search operation for the missing person till October 28 morning and then brought the fishermen to Coast Guard office at Goa.

Karwar Coast Guard also rescued nine fishermen of Raj Kiran boat owned by Asha Mendon which was facing problems as its steering got jammed, on October 26, the Coast Guard said.