Missing trawler case: 22 mt long object found at sea?

Team Udayavani, Jan 24, 2019, 2:04 AM IST

|Investigation carries on | Clear picture within two days

Malpe: It has been 40 days since the mysterious disappearance of the deep sea trawler ‘Suvarna Tribhuja’ along with its crew of 7 fishermen and the search operation for the missing trawler has carried on. Meanwhile, sources have informed that the Indian Navy is using SONAR at the location where one of its ship’s hull had suffered damage and incidentally has located a 22 meter long object in the waters.

Since the SONAR cannot give the entire picture of the finding, the India Navy has brought in another ship to carry out additional investigation and hence the search continues. It is learnt that a clear image will emerge in a span of two days.

Fishermen’s attempt

In the backdrop of the report that traces of diesel have been found at Panaji Beitul in Goa, a team of Udupi police and coast guard visited the spot but soon returned as they found no leads there, but 7-8 deep sea trawlers from Malpe have stayed back and carried on their search for the missing trawler. They are attempting to locate any wreckage by dropping anchor and pulling it up. They believe that, if there is anything on the sea bed, it will be pried up by the anchor.

The fishermen are not ready to accept that the ‘Survarna Tribhuja’ met with a disaster and sank. Such an incident has never occurred in 4-5 decades of deep sea fishing. Even if there is a boat disaster, it does not sink immediately. The water fills in slowly. There is equipment in the boats for safety. Therefore, the boat has not sank, they strongly believe.