Police name drowned trawler crew

The Oyang 70 fishing trawler in the South Pacific Ocean. Photo / NZ Defence Force

Police have named three of the crew who died when their fishing trawler sank in the Southern Ocean on August 18.

Six crew lost their lives when the New Zealand chartered South Korean-flagged Oyang 70 sank in calm seas 800km southeast of Dunedin.

Forty five other crew who included Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos and Chinese were rescued by the Nelson-based fishing trawler Amaltal Atlantis.

Three of the bodies were recovered and police named them today as Heru Yuniarto, 22, Taefur, 35 and Sansuri, 38, all from Indonesia.

The boat's skipper, Shin Hyeon Gi, 42, of South Korea, went down with his boat. His body and those of two Indonesian crew have not been recovered.

Surviving crew have said that they were hauling up a net full of fish when the boat tipped to the side and started taking on water.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission is investigating the cause of the sinking. Its report is expected to take at least a year to complete.

- NZPA