Forty-eight fishers aboard the boat “St. Antony” were rescued after it hit the wreckage of a fishing vessel that had sunk off the coast of Vypeen, close to the Kochi shipping channel. The collision took place around 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, said a spokesman for the traditional fishers’ association, Paramparagatha Matsya Thozhilali Union, at Vypeen. P.V. Jayan of the union said that fishers on boats nearby came to the rescue of those on the boat. Their timely intervention helped save the lives of the 48 fishers, he said. According to fishers, two boats had sunk off the coast of Vypeen and the wreckages have been posing a hindrance to the movement of fishing boats, especially during the low tide. One of these boats, Poornasree, had sunk in the third week of May, 2021, and another boat, Ashiqmon, on August 31, said Charles George of Matysa Thozhilali Aikya Vedhi, a union of traditional fishers. Fishers’ unions have appealed to the Cochin Port Trust to help retrieve the wreckages to avoid recurrence of such incidents. K.N. Unnikrishnnan, Vypeen MLA, has written to Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian, pointing out that the accident in the early hours of Wednesday occurred after the fishing boat ran into the wreckage.
While the primary responsibility of removing the remains of a sunken boat remained with the boat owner, institutions like the Cochin Port Trust should be held liable to pay compensation to the affected fishers for its failure to ensure that the wreckage was removed in a timely manner, he said. Group insurance Mr. Unnikrishnan said that since the premium for insurance was high, boat owners were reluctant to insure their vessels and that the Fisheries Department should make sure that boat owners and workers received group insurance cover. The MLA said that unless the wreckage of sunken boats was removed or if proper signage was not put up to mark the spots, more accidents were likely in the area.
2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD.