A fishery association yesterday urged the government to verify a source and seek assistance for a search after a message in a bottle related to a missing Taiwanese fishing boat captain was recently found off the coast of Ireland.
The family of the missing captain, surnamed Lee (李), has been informed of the discovery, Suao Fishermen’s Association secretary-general Chen Chun-sheng (陳春生) said.
The message in a bottle was recently discovered by two men named Matt and Chris while strolling on a beach on Inisheer Island off the coast of Ireland, a report published on Thursday by Nanyang Siang Pau, a Chinese-language newspaper based in Malaysia.
Photo: Screen grab from Wang Hao-yu’s Facebook page
The message, written mostly in Bahasa Indonesia, reads in English as “Please send help! We’ve been lost since Dec. 20. There are 3 of us here. We don’t know the name of this island. Wounded. Help Hello SOS. Lee. Yong Yu Sing 18.”
If the source is verified, Chen expressed hope that the authorities would seek assistance from international organizations to carry out a search.
The Suao (蘇澳)-registered Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號) is a 99-tonne tuna longliner that was reported to the National Rescue Command as missing by its owner on Jan. 1, 2021, after the owner lost contact with the captain on Dec. 30, 2020.
Photo: Screen grab from Wang Hao-yu’s Facebook page
The center promptly sought assistance from US authorities, and a US fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft found the missing boat 606 nautical miles (1,122km) northeast of Midway Atoll on Jan. 2.
Observers on the plane at the time noticed that the windows of the captain’s cabin were smashed open, while the boat appeared to be drifting, and there were no signs of the Taiwanese captain or his nine Indonesian crewmembers.
When the boat’s owner lost contact with the Yong Yu Sing, it was reported to be 527 nautical miles northeast of Midway Atoll.
No distress calls were received from the boat before its disappearance, the association said.
The vessel was later towed back to Suao for investigation by prosecutors. In 2021, they said no evidence of criminal activity was found on board, and concluded that the incident was likely caused by severe weather.
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