Rescuers not expecting to find any more survivors from Oryong 501 in Bering Sea
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. Dec 4 (Interfax) - Search teams continue to work in the area where South Korea's Oryong 501 trawler sank in the Bering Sea, but they do not expect to find any more survivors, Artur Rets, head of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Sea Port's rescue center, has said.
"It is unlikely that we will find any survivors. Our operation is effectively aimed at looking for dead crew members," he said at a meeting with representatives of the embassies of South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Thursday.
Rets, however, said there was an "objective need" to continue the search operation. He did not rule out the possibility that only South Korean vessels would operate in this area at the end of the week.
The bodies of another four crew members from the Oryong 501 were pulled from the sea on Thursday morning, Rets said.
"They include two citizens of South Korea, but it is still unclear whether the other two were Indonesians or Filipinos," he said.
All survivors and the bodies of another 16 crew members are currently on board a South Korean vessel, he added.
A South Korean-flagged rescue vessel may deliver the survivors and dead crew members to Busan, the head of South Korea's Consulate General in Vladivostok said.
"We will discuss this option with the government of South Korea and will then inform the Russian side of our official position," he said.
For his part, a Russian official attending the meeting in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said he did not see any obstacles to transporting the survivors and the dead crew members from the Oryong 501 fishing trawler to South Korea's Busan port, where this ship is registered.
Another four South Korean vessels joined the search operation in the Bering Sea on Thursday, a spokesman for the Russian Border Guard Service's Chukotka peninsula branch told Interfax.
"Four South Korean vessels, which had been sheltering from bad weather off Cape Navarin, have already reached the site. These vessels have joined the search operation," the spokesman said.
An Antonov An-26 airplane is ready to take off from Anadyr to participate in this effort. The U.S. Coast Guard's Hercules C-130 plane is also expected to join the search operation in the Bering Sea.
The search operation involves five Russian vessels - the medium-sized fishing trawler Karolina-77, whose captain is coordinating the operation, the large refrigeration trawler Zaliv Zabiyaka, the trawler Pelageal, the trawler Astronom, and the fishing boat Vladimir Bradyuk.
The dead bodies of 11 crew members (four citizens of South Korea, one Filipino and six Indonesians) from the Oryong 501 were found on Wednesday. All bodies were taken aboard Russian vessels participating in the search operation.
The South Korean fishing trawler Oriong-501 sank off the coast of the Chukchi autonomous region in the Bering Sea at 5:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. Moscow time) on Monday. The crew did not send a distress signal. Reportedly, seawater flooded the ship after the crew pulled in the trawl net.
There were 60 sailors onboard, citizens of South Korea (commanders), Indonesia and the Philippines (mostly fish processing personnel) and a Russian fishing inspector.
Five people were taken aboard the Karolina-77 ship. Another person who had been rescued died from hypothermia aboard the Karolina-77. The Zaliv Zabiyaka rescued two sailors, citizens of Indonesia. Thirty-seven crewmembers are still missing.
