Nation/World

No sign of more than 50 fishermen missing after boat sinks in Bering Sea

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korean officials expressed fear of a huge death toll after rescuers Monday failed to find any of the more than 50 fishermen missing after their vessel sank amid high waves in frigid waters of the western Bering Sea.

One Korean crew member was confirmed dead and 52 others remain missing. Eight people made it into a lifeboat, including the one who later died. A nearby fishing vessel rescued them.

Of the 60 people on board the vessel named 501 Oryong, there were 35 from Indonesia, 13 from the Philippines, 11 from Korea and one from Russia. The Russian was described by the Associated Press as a fisheries inspector and was among those saved along with three Indonesian and three Filipino crew members.

The 326-foot fishing vessel sank Sunday evening in Russian waters about 15 miles from U.S. waters, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The vessel, which news reports said was owned by Sajo Industries Co. Ltd of Seoul, was fishing for pollock. Russian authorities reported that the trawler was hauling in its catch when a wave hit and flooded its storage chambers with seawater.

A distress signal went out at about 8:20 p.m. Alaska time, according to the Consular Office of the Republic of Korea in Anchorage.

Rough seas and poor visibility hampered Monday's search, which drew on Coast Guard crews from Alaska as well as rescuers from Russia's Kamchatka Border Guard Directorate.

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A Coast Guard HC-130 from Air Station Kodiak flew over the area Monday afternoon, and the Coast Guard Cutter Munro was headed to the scene from Dutch Harbor, said Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Eggert. The Oryong went down about 150 miles northwest of Alaska's St. Matthew Island and about 580 miles from Dutch Harbor, Eggert said. The Munro wasn't expected to arrive there until Wednesday.

With just one-half mile of visibility, waves 22 to 26 feet high, high winds and a low cloud ceiling, the search for survivors was challenging, Eggert said from Anchorage. Rescuers did find a couple of life rafts, but they were empty, he said Monday evening.

"The weather on the scene is quite bad," Eggert said.

It's impossible to give an estimate of how long crew members could survive, he said. It would depend on whether they were wearing life jackets, whether they made it into a life raft, their overall health and the weather.

The fishing vessel had a total of eight lifeboats, according to an unnamed Sajo official interviewed by the Associated Press.

Reports have varied widely on the water temperature in the area. The Associated Press in Seoul reported that the water temperature was below 14 degrees at the time of the sinking. Eggert said the Coast Guard had received reports ranging from 40 degrees to, most recently, 57 degrees, which is colder than it might sound.

"Because of the weather out there, it can certainly make it seem worse," he said.

The C-130 crew was returning to Kodiak on Monday night but a fresh crew was preparing to head out at first light Tuesday, Eggert said.

Kim Kang-ho from Sajo Industries, described as a canned tuna company, said the 2,000-ton vessel was 36 years old.

An official from South Korea's foreign ministry, who refused to be named citing office rules, said late Monday Alaska time that the death toll was expected to rise because rescuers failed to find any of the missing passengers. Four fishing ships that were operating nearby continue to search for survivors, but harsh weather conditions have limited their mobility, the official said.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won told a Cabinet meeting that the government will work with Russia to speed up the rescue efforts.

Authorities in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the rescued fishermen were well and would be taken to South Korea once the weather improves.

Kim from Sajo said the ship left for the Bering Sea from Busan, South Korea, on July 10 for the Bering Sea to catch pollock, which the Associated Press called a winter delicacy in South Korea. Alaska pollock is often turned into frozen, breaded products as well as imitation crab, or surimi.

The Korean government began seeking help from the Coast Guard almost right away, according to the Coast Guard and the Korean Consular Office in Anchorage.

The level of response is under intense scrutiny. The ship's sinking comes months after South Korea experienced its deadliest maritime disaster in decades. The sinking of the Sewol ferry off South Korea's southwestern coast in April left more than 300 passengers dead, mostly teenagers on a school trip. The accident caused nationwide grief and fury.

Chung tendered his resignation as prime minister after the ferry disaster, saying he felt responsible for the government's poor response. But he is continuing in his role as a leader.

Associated Press writers Kim Tong-Hyung in Seoul and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report. Alaska Dispatch News reporters Lisa Demer in Bethel and Laurel Andrews in Anchorage also contributed.

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