18 Taiwanese fishers feared drowned

8.00pm

The 18-strong crew of a Taiwanese fishing boat are believed drowned after their vessel sank in a severe South Pacific storm last week, New Zealand search and rescue authorities said today.

The captain of the 32m Lih Fa radioed other vessels in the fishing fleet shortly after midnight on April 17 "that his vessel was flooding and requested them to provide immediate assistance", Rescue Co-ordination Centre spokesman Ray Parker said.

"We believe the vessel either swamped or foundered" in the "pretty horrible 6m seas" whipped up by the storm 800km west of Auckland, he said. Eight vessels from the fleet that rushed to the area found "an oil slick and debris probably swept off the deck", including a marine life buoy, fishing tackle and fishing line floats that have been identified as coming from Lih Fa, Mr Parker said.

No mayday call was made by the captain, the fishing boat's emergency locater beacon was not activated and a sea and air search found no sign of either the vessel or its two life rafts, he said.

The air search by a New Zealand air force P3 Orion "did not locate any relevant objects" from the lost vessel, Mr Parker said in a statement.

The press statement provided the first report of the boat's apparent sinking.

Mr Parker said the opinion of the "skippers out in the area" at the time of the emergency was that the ship had been swamped and had sunk with all hands still on board.

Lih Fa, owned by An Ho Chen Fisheries of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, was part of a fleet of small vessels operating out of Suva, Fiji.

Johnnie Wong, a spokesman for the company, told the Associated Press the boat's crew was made up of two Taiwanese, 15 Chinese and one Vietnamese.

New Zealand's Maritime Operations Centre and Australian Search and Rescue authorities were continuing "broadcasts to all shipping passing through the area to report any signs of the Lih Fa", Mr Parker said.

A Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman told NZPA there had been no formal search for the vessel since Saturday.

"There had been some hope the vessel might be fishing somewhere out of radio contact, but as time passes the likelihood of that being the case becomes less and less."

Australian rescue services had also been involved in the search, the spokeswoman said.

- NZPA

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/marine