By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
A search for the crew of a South Korean fishing trawler resumed Tuesday as bad weather in the Bering Sea hampered overnight efforts to find 52 missing sailors, local media reported.
“None of the missing crew members were rescued overnight,” a South Korean foreign ministry official told the Yonhap news agency.
He said the rescue operation resumed early Tuesday after “being suspended for hours due to bad weather and rough seas.”
The 1,753-ton Oryong 501 sank in rough seas off Russia’s Chukotka coast Monday as it fished for pollock.
Seven survivors and a dead South Korean crew member, who succumbed to hypothermia, were pulled from the -10c seas shortly after the ship sank. They were reportedly hauled from a life boat.
The South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said the 60-strong crew was made up of 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and a Russian inspector.
The Oryong 501 was originally built in Spain in 1978 and has been owned by South Korea’s Sajo Industries since 2010.
A statement from the company said the boat sunk despite attempts to pump sea water after it was hit by a wave as the crew attempted to land a catch.
"Eight crew members who were rescued escaped on a life raft while other crew members are assumed to have escaped wearing life jackets," Yonhap quoted a company statement.
Families of the missing crew complained that the ship should not have been operating under bad weather conditions.
The sinking comes eight months after South Korea was rocked by a ferry disaster off its own coast, claiming more than 300 lives in a disaster that raised concerns about the enforcement of marine safety regulations.
The Oryong 501 left port in Busan, South Korea, in July. It was one of six South Korean trawlers allowed to catch pollock under a fisheries deal with Russia.
South Korean, Russian and U.S. aircraft are conducting the search.
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