Indian Coast guards with the help from merchant vessels transiting in the Arabian sea rescued over 250 fishermen who were in distress owing to rough sea conditions.
Responding to a message from Tamil Nadu Fisheries authority Kolachel intimating about the distress of 50 stranded Fishing Boats at a distance of 250 Nautical Miles West of Goa, Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Centre facilitated the rescue of 264 fishermen by activating the International Safety Net.
The distress call was received on December 3 and a total of seven Merchant Vessels transiting through the area responded to the Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Centre and were requested to provide assistance to the distressed fishing boats in the vicinity till the arrival of ICG ships in the area, a statement said.
As a result, Indian Merchant Vessel Navdhenu Purna rescued 86 fishermen from 07 IFBs and a Japanese flag vessel MV Towada rescued around 34 fishermen from the distressed fishing boats.
Soon on request from Indian Coast Guard, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, five more merchant vessels joined the rescue operation and as many as 264 fishermen were rescued.
The survivors are being provided with food and first aid, all of them are reported to be healthy, the statement added.
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Presently, Indian Coast Guard ships Samudra Prahari, Samar, Savitribai Phule, Amal and Apoorva are augmenting the ongoing Rescue Operation at sea along with Coast Guard Dornier Aircraft for Sea-Air coordinated operations.
Eight Coast Guard ships have been tasked and three Dornier have flown during the day. The Maritime Safety Information through International SafetyNET and NAVTEX is being continuously updated to the merchantmen transiting the area.
On November 30, Coast Guard Region (West), Operation Centre located at Mumbai while monitoring the weather at sea had issued a rough weather warning at sea off central and southeastern Arabian sea to all stakeholders and initiated actions as per its Standard Operating Procedure which include issuance of advisories to concerned Coastal States and other stakeholders.
Consequent to the issuance of advisory Kerala State Government had also enforced two days' ban on fishing- for December 2 and 3 and Lakshadweep Administration had also issued prohibition orders restricting fishing boats to venture out in the sea.