Two fishermen were killed and one went missing after a Panama-registered cargo ship, Amber l, rammed into their fishing boat off the Kochi coast early Sunday morning.
There were 14 fishermen in the fishing boat, Carmel Matha, when it capsised about 14 nautical miles off the Kochi coast at about 2.30 am on Sunday after being hit by the 25,955-dwt vessel, which had started journey at Eilat in Israel. The remaining 11 people in the boat were rescued with injuries and brought to Kochi by another fishing boat that had dropped anchor nearby.
The cargo vessel had fled the scene without bothering to rescue the fishermen but it was detained along with its crew from near the Kochi-Minicoy shipping channel after a massive search by the Coast Guard and the Navy.
The Coastal Police in Fort Kochi has registered a case under various Sections of the IPC, including for culpable homicide over the incident.
At least six major tragedies involving fishing boats and ships have taken place off the Kerala coast since 2004. On February 15, 2012, Italian marines on board Naples-based oil tanker Enrica lexie had shot dead two fishermen off the Kollam coast.
On March 1 the same year, merchant vessel Prabhu Daya had rammed into a fishing boat killing five fishermen.
The fishermen killed in Sunday’s accident were identified as Antony John alias Thampidurai (55) from Colachel, Tamil Nadu, and Rahul Das (27) from Assam. Search was continuing for the missing fisherman, also said to be from Assam. The 11 injured fishermen were admitted to two hospitals in Kochi and the condition of two of them was stated to be serious.
The fishermen on the ill-fated boat, owned by one Nasser of Fort Kochi, were asleep after dropping anchor some 14 nautical miles off the Kochi coast when the cargo ship rammed into it in the middle, entirely destroying and sinking it instantly. Those who were rescued had come out of the capsised boat by breaking the glass cabin windows.
“We woke up hearing a big sound and before we could react, the boat capsised. The impact was so big that some of us were thrown off. All of us were under water. The ship that hit us had turned its lights off sped off without bothering to rescue us,” said a fisherman who was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Fort Kochi.
Two fishermen from Carmel Matha had managed to swim to another fishing boat, St Antony’s, which had dropped anchor about two nautical miles away. “First we spotted two of them and we lifted them to our boat from the water. Then we found the others and all of them were brought on board. We could rescue only 11,” said a crew member of St Antony’s fishing boat.
“We can now add a new item, death due to ship-hit, to the list of fishermen’s plights off Kerala coast. The failures in the Enrica lexie case are a perfect example of how seriously the Governments view fishermen’s problems. We are in a situation where the children of sea cannot go into the sea for the only job they know,” Charles George, leader of a fishermen’s union, said.
Amber l was detained in the outer sea and the Kochi Police and State Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma said that a case would be registered against the ship’s captain and others. Steps were on to record the arrest of the ship. Additional DGP Tomin Thachankery, in charge of Coastal Police, said the ship had violated essential laws by fleeing the accident scene.
The captain of the ship, a Greek national, reportedly informed that his crew had not known of the accident and that was why they did not stop for rescue operation. The ship, carrying fertilizers, had 28 crew members, including two Indians doing security job. The ship’s crew members are expected to be questioned on Monday.