The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that 18 crewmembers of a Taiwanese fishing boat went missing after their vessel vanished in a severe South Pacific storm last week.
"The vessel is now listed as missing," a Wellington-based diplomat surnamed Wang who works for the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office, Wellington, said yesterday by telephone.
The diplomat's confirmation came after a wire report quoted New Zealand search and rescue authorities as saying that the crewmembers are believed drowned after their vessel sank.
According to New Zealand Rescue Coordination Center spokesman Ray Parker, the captain of the 32m Lih Fa (
Eight ships from the fleet that rushed to the area located "an oil slick and debris probably swept off the deck," including a life buoy, fishing tackle and fishing line floats, Parker said.
He said that the Lih Fa's captain did not make a mayday call and the boat's emergency-locater beacon was not activated.
"We believe the vessel either swamped or foundered" in the "pretty horrible 6m seas" whipped up by the storm 800km west of Auckland, Parker said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Kaohsiung-registered vessel had 18 crewmembers, including two Taiwanese, one Vietnamese and 15 Chinese.
According to Wang, the vessel left Fiji on Feb. 20 and the representative office in Wellington was informed last Thursday afternoon that the boat was missing.
The office then sought assistance from the Maritime Safety Authority of New Zealand, the ministry said.
Last Friday, local maritime authorities contacted the Hau-chun No. 3 (豪春三號), another Taiwanese vessel in the vicinity of where the Lih Fa disappeared, to seek its help to locate the whereabouts of the missing boat, the ministry said.
The Hau-chun No. 3 spotted a small oil slick and a lifebelt from the missing vessel, although the Lih Fa's lifeboat was not found, the ministry said.
The Lih Fa was part of a fleet of small Taiwanese vessels operating out of Suva, the capital of Fiji.
RSS