MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spanish fishing boat “Dorneda” sunk in Argentine Waters

The Navy issued a statement saying it was alerted Tuesday night that the Dorneda was in trouble

A Spanish fishing trawler sank in rough weather off Argentina’s coast and at least one crewmember died, Argentina's Navy said Wednesday. Twenty-five crewmembers were rescued and one was missing.

The Navy issued a statement saying it was alerted Tuesday night that the Dorneda was in trouble.

Early in the morning, the Spanish fishing trawler Farruco found two life rafts and a lifeboat with crewmembers from Spain, Peru, Morocco and Indonesia aboard.

The British-flagged Beagle I also participated in the rescue and was taking the survivors to shore in Puerto Madryn, some 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires.

The Navy said was still searching the missing crewmember.

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said the ship apparently took on water during rough weather.

Late in Wednesday, Argentine NAVY issued an statement exlpaining the situation: 

The search effort of the missing crew member continues. At the moment two rafts with survivors have recovered in the area of ​​operations.

The Argentine Navy, reporting to the Ministry of Defense, reports that the search effort of the missing crew member of the Spanish flagged fishing vessel “Dorneda” continues on the night of July 10.

At the moment, two rafts with survivors have been recovered in the area of ​​operations, as previously reported. Also, two other rafts and other debris were found that could not be recovered.

Today the SAR guard aircraft of the Argentine Navy (S-2T) Turbotracker, decoloured the area of ​​operations to join the search and perform a visual rake and returned to the city of Trelew for low visibility. Several fishing vessels continue to collaborate actively, among them the “Navigator” who in the last hours recovered one of the rafts and the semi-rigid boat mentioned above.

The fishing vessel “Beagle I”, which carries on board nine (9) of the rescued crew members, by decision of its owner, will go to the port of Mar del Plata, anticipating their arrival on Friday at noon. Meanwhile, the fishing vessel “Farruco” will remain in the area in search tasks until the last hours of light and then will go to take port in the city of Montevideo, by order of its owner, to disembark the rest of the rescued personnel.

The National Maritime Search and Rescue Agency of the Argentine Navy is the National SAR Application Authority (Search and Rescue) according to Law 22,445 and acts in compliance with the international obligations of the Argentine State.