Two fishing boats adrift in Sri Lankan waters rescued along with 20 crew members on board

The Hindu

01-07-2025

A well-coordinated and timely effort by District Collector K. Elambahavath, officials of Department of Fisheries, Indian Coast Guard, and the Thoothukudi fishermen has ensured the safe return of two mechnaised boats with 20 crew that drifted into the Sri Lankan waters after sudden technical snag.
The mechanised boat 'Samson' left Tharuvaikulam Fish Landing Centre, its base, on June 15 for the first multi-day deep-sea stay fishing in Indian Ocean after the 61-day-long annual fishing ban with 11 crew with a lot of hopes of good harvest. However, the 140 hp six-cylinder engine developed a snag dashing the hopes of the crew even as they were fishing at the depth of more than 3,000 feet northeast off Kanniyakumari coast on June 27.
After the crew's efforts to rectify the glitch failed, they sought the help of the mechanised boats fishing nearby through their communication devices to tow the boat back to Tharuvaikulam. However, rough sea conditions thwarted their repeated attempts to tow the 93-tonne steel structure. To make things worse, the boat's wireless set too went dead.
On getting information, the stranded 10-year-old boat's owner Athishta Kumar of Tharuvaikulam and his brother-in-law A. Aniton sought the help of Thoothukudi mechanised boat fishermen as the engine hauling power of Thoothukudi trawlers was much higher. As the owner of boat 'Anto' agreed for the rescue operation, his boat left Thoothukudi Fishing Harbour with nine crew members on June 28 early morning towards the GPS location marked by the stranded boat.
Unfortunately, 'Anto', which was carrying the authorisation letter given by the Fisheries department about the proposed rescue operation, developed a snag in hostile weather conditions and both 'Anto' and 'Samson' started drifting towards Sri Lankan waters.
'When we narrated our plight to Assistant Director of Fisheries Bushra Shabhnam over the phone on Saturday night, she straightaway started the work even though she was in Thiruvananthapuram to receive the Thoothukudi fishermen returning from war-torn Iran. She shared this information with the District Collector over the phone around 9.45 p.m. even as she was returning to Thoothukudi for action through the Indian Coast Guard,' recalls Mr. Aniton.
On getting information, Mr. Elambahavath alerted the Indian Coast Guard to rescue the boats drifting towards Sri Lankan waters. And, the ICG commandant kept an ICG boat ready at Thoothukudi Fishing Harbour before dawn for the rescue operation.
The Collector wisely alerted the Sri Lankan officials through proper channels about the Thoothukudi boats drifting towards their shores that effectively averted arrest-like incidents by Sri Lankan navy.
Meanwhile, Tharuvaikulam fishermen arranged two mechanised boats from Thoothukudi for the rescue operation and Ms. Bushra, who reached Thoothukudi Fishing Harbour late on Monday early morning, made arrangements for giving groceries and 2,000 litres of diesel to each boat even though the fuel station in the fishing harbour was closed on Sunday.
Since both the boats did not have satellite phones, Ms. Bushra started searching for this communication device. 'When I was told that a Tharuvaikulam boat with a satellite phone was returning to the shore after fishing around 6 a.m. on Monday, we brought it to be handed over to one of the rescue boats even though they were accompanied by the ICG boat,' Ms. Bushra said.
While the ICG boat can sail at the speed of 25 knots, the rescue boats' maximum speed is only 10 knots and hence the ICG boat slowly accompanied the two boats until it reached the International Maritime Boundary Line. After communicating with their Sri Lankan counterparts, the ICG officers allowed the rescue boats to enter the Sri Lankan waters to tow the stranded boats to reach Thoothukudi Fishing Harbour on Monday forenoon.
'We are immensely indebted to the Collector, the Indian Coast Guard, Ms. Bushra and the Thoothukdi fishermen for having safely rescued our livelihood (the boats) with the crew through well-coordinated efforts. All of them had sleepless nights on Saturday and Sunday for our wellbeing,' said Mr. Aniton.