PARADIP: The 13 fishermen on board two trawlers which were missing in the Bay of Bengal off Paradip coast for the last one week, arrived safely at the port harbour after being traced by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Monday.
The fishermen had ventured into the sea on two trawlers named ‘Devi Laxmi’ and ‘Kinnera’ on January 8. They had reportedly planned to fish at a distance of 88 nautical miles off Paradip coast. However, no contact could be made with them from January 10.
After the location of the two trawlers could not be traced, president of Odisha Marine Fish Producers’ Association Srikant Parida on Sunday sought the Fisheries department’s help to find the fishermen. On being informed, the Fisheries department wrote to the ICG and Marine police to locate the trawlers and rescue the fishermen missing in the sea.
A search operation was launched and the ICG traced the two trawlers near Bangladesh coast. The fishermen were brought back to the harbour in the afternoon. A senior officer of the Fisheries department said the fishermen were unable to make any contact due to signal failure and stranded in deep sea for the last one week. “All of them underwent medical examination after their return and their health condition is stable,” he added.
Sources said the two trawlers were engaged by a contract agency to assist in survey work of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for 30 days. The vessels were tasked with exploration of oil and natural gas on and off Odisha coast. Despite being asked not to engage in any other work except survey for ONGC, the two trawlers were involved in fishing illegally. Meanwhile, Paradip Marine police has launched an investigation into the incident and is interrogating the fishermen to know the circumstances under which they went missing in the sea.