Five shipwreck bodies found

3 June 2004

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA – Rescue services found the bodies of five crew members Thursday from a fishing boat that had sunk the day before.

The Galician boat Bahia, with a crew of 10, went down in rough seas near the Sisargas Islands late Wednesday.

Rescuers spent the night searching the area and have found bits of the boat, including life-jackets, EFE news agency reported.

The search for the rest of the crew continues. An investigation has begun into what could have caused the tragedy.

The stretch of the Galician coast where the boat went down is known as the Coast of Death because of the number of shipwrecks.

The Prestige oil disaster, when millions of gallons of oil leaked from a wrecked tanker, happened further along the same stretch of dangerous coastline in November 2002.

The missing trawler sent an emergency message before losing contact a few miles from the islands at about 8.15pm.

At the time there were strong winds and heavy seas.

The Bahia was returning from the Basque region, where it had been fishing for anchovy, to the port of Cesantes, in Redondela. The crew are all from the area.

The five dead were named as Jaime Migueles Díaz, Hermindo Castro Veiga, Antonio Sánchez Cobían, Manuel Refojo Sousa and Enrique Díaz Vázquez.

The Galician regional government has sent a team of psychologists to offer support to the families of those who died or are missing.

Fisheries Minister Elena Espinosa is heading for Galicia to meet relatives.

In the past ten years, 227 Galician fishermen have died at sea.

United Nations figures suggest fishing may be the world’s most dangerous occupation. Figures in 2001 suggested that an average of 70 lives were being lost every day.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news