Six fishermen, who went missing on Thursday following the damage to their boat in the sea near Ullal, remained untraced on Friday despite pressing an aircraft to search for them.
The Coast Guard, Mangalore police, and the district administration continued joint search operations on Friday. The search had been stopped around 2 p.m. on Thursday following low tide and poor visibility. It resumed early on Friday and continued till evening.
The six fishermen were in the “Ocean Fisheries 2” fishing boat that was damaged after reportedly hitting a portion of a sunken ship on Thursday. Vicent (55), who was one among the crew, was rescued and brought to the fishing harbour on Thursday evening. He had given the names of the missing fishermen as Srikant, Narayana Gowda, Abdul Rehman, Vishak, Raman, and Shivakumar.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Vincent D'Souza said they had been able to confirm the presence of Srikant, Narayana Gowda, and Abdul Rehman on the boat as it corresponded with the details given by their relatives.
Srikant hails from Hospet while Narayana Gowda was from Koppal. Abdul Rehman was a resident of Panji-Mogaru in Mangalore. The police were yet to get details about three other persons named by Vincent, Mr. D'Souza said.
On Friday, the Coast Guards used a ship specially requisitioned from Kochi for the search.
They made use of a Dornier aircraft. “They have searched the location where the boat was damaged and also a few nautical miles around it. They have not found any trace of them,” said Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda.
Mr. Gowda said he would discuss with the Coast Guard Commander on Saturday and chalk out further action. Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said the city police and the coastal security police personnel had been coordinating with the Coast Guard.
The police had spoken to the family members of missing persons and their colleagues. “We are collecting information and sharing it with Coast Guard,” he said.
The trawl and purse-seine boat operators carried out separate searches. “We have passed on the information to our boats in the deep sea, in Kerala and in Goa coasts,” said Abdul Rehman, the vice president of Mangalore Trawl Boat Meenugarara Sangha. Mr. Rehman said not many boats moved out of the harbour on Friday because of rough conditions at the bar-mouth.
