Some 39 hours after the signal was lost from the Villa de Pitanxo In the waters of Newfoundland (Canada), a freezer ship of 50 meters in length that was shipwrecked on Tuesday 450 kilometers southeast of the Canadian island with 24 crew members on board, the authorities of the North American country have definitively suspended this Wednesday the tasks of search and rescue of the 12 disappeared from the Galician fishing boat, from which three people were rescued and nine bodies were found. Javier Touza, president of the Fishing Ship Owners Cooperative of the Port of Vigo (ARVI), to which the sunken ship belongs, explained to this newspaper that the Halifax Rescue Coordination Center in Canada will not continue with the searches due to the bad weather in the area, with temperatures of up to minus seven degrees —and a higher thermal sensation—, waves of seven meters and icy water: “It is very bad news because the logistical support that their helicopters, their planes, their fleet, were giving us, It was very important in these circumstances. They allege the difficulties of working in these conditions of bad weather and poor visibility. Our trawlers continue to track down any slightest trace, although I don’t know for how long. I want to convey to the families absolute support.”
Touza refers to the fishing boats that belong to the Vigo shipowners’ cooperative that this Wednesday have approached the area, among which is the Menduina Two Beach, where the three rescued from a life raft on Tuesday in the midst of a hypothermia crisis are staying. Both this Spanish ship and the others that belong to ARVI are still in the area looking for the bodies of the crew members, but the chances of finding them are minimal. Roberto Sotelo, captain of the Spanish-flagged ship River Caxil, another of those who participate in the relief tasks, explained this afternoon by phone to EL PAÍS that hopes are minimal: “We did not find anything, at the moment we are incapable. The sea is very rough, very bad”.
The Canadian authorities have prolonged the search and rescue efforts beyond the time indicated by the survival tables in the extreme conditions that occur in the waters of the Great Bank of Newfoundland and that indicate that after 24 hours there are no real options to find fishermen alive. The authorities of the North American country have confirmed shortly after on Twitter that they abandon the tracking work. “Unfortunately, at four in the afternoon [hora local]due to the results of the exhaustive search of Canadian aircraft and ships for more than 36 hours in an area of 900 square nautical miles [3.086,9 kilómetros cuadrados]the search for the 12 missing sailors of the Villa de Pitanxo has been discontinued. Our thoughts and sincere condolences go out to the families, friends and the fishing community. The case will now be handed over to the police as a case of missing persons at sea”, the Halifax Rescue Coordination Center itself wrote in two messages on this social network. Since Tuesday, Canada had mobilized coast guard planes and helicopters and several ships, including the nexus and the Cygnus.
Regrettably, at 4 pm AST, based on the results of the exhaustive search by a significant number of SAR aircraft and vessels over the last 36+ hours, a search covering over 900 sq NM, the search for the 12 missing fishers aboard the FV Villa de Pitanxo has been suspended.
— HfxJRCC_CCCOS (@hfxjrcc) February 16, 2022
The reason for the sinking Villa de Pitanxo it’s a mystery. The boat was practically new—built in 2004—and the crew was experienced. The area east of Newfoundland, in the North Atlantic, is one of the most complicated due to its characteristics, with poor visibility, strong currents, intense winds and icy waters. “But while the weather conditions weren’t good at the time, they weren’t extreme either. And she was a very modern ship. It will help us a lot to be able to talk to the boss, who is the witness of what has happened, but the survivors were in a state of hypothermic crisis and so far they have only been able to talk to direct family members for a very short time, “explains Javier Touza.
The notification of the end of the search and rescue operations comes shortly after the Rescue Coordination Center confirmed that in the end nine bodies have been recovered and not 10, as initially reported. The error is the result of a confusion during communication with one of the Portuguese fishing boats that participated in the rescue tasks. After the clarification of the Canadian authorities, the bodies recovered are nine and the missing amount to 12.
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The three survivors are the ship’s skipper, Juan Padín, his nephew Eduardo Rial and a sailor from Ghana, Samuel Kwesi Koufi. The three travel in the Spanish fishing Menduina Two Beach, which also recovered six bodies. Another body is found in the Portuguese fishing boat Novo Virgem da Barca and the two remaining dead have been picked up by the Canadian ship nexus.
The president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, stated this Wednesday that the tragedy is the worst suffered by the fishing community in the region for more than four decades, when in January 1978 the fishing Mabel shipwrecked in the vicinity of the Cíes Islands, at the entrance to the Vigo estuary. The event ended with nine survivors and 27 deaths, many of whom were never found, as has happened in other shipwrecks, and led to demonstrations by hundreds of people in various Galician towns to protest the lack of safety for the sailors, a of the highest risk professions, as recognized by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Boat Villa de Pitanxo, based in Marín (Pontevedra) and owned by the Galician shipowner Manuel Nores —owner of the Nores group—, had 24 crew members on board, of whom 16 are Spanish, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians. The ship, which was fishing in the fishing grounds of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in search of halibut and other species, issued two alerts during the early hours of Tuesday, at 5:24 a.m. Spanish time. They were received by the National Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (CNCS) in Madrid, which tried to contact them without success. The signal from the ship’s blue box – the geolocation system, which communicates with the station that tracks the ship, much like the black box used by planes – was lost around six in the morning without At the moment the ship is located in the depths of the North Atlantic.
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