10 of 15 missing Honduran crew members rescued
At least 10 of the 15 Honduran crew members from the Falling Star lobster fishing vessel, who had been reported missing at sea last week Tuesday, are now rescued.
Five members of the crew are still unaccounted for, but the Jamaica Observer understands that the 10 were found in one of two life-saving rafts that were on the vessel before it sank, giving hope that the others could be alive.
The Falling Star was part of a fleet being operated by Jamaican company Rainforest Seafoods. The vessel was returning from dry-docking/routine maintenance overseas when it ceased sending tracking signals on the afternoon of July 6. Its last location up to the point of its disappearance was 30 miles west of the Pedro Banks.
Boatwatch.org confirmed the developments to the Observer yesterday and said that a local representative had gone out to sea on a ship carrying doctors and medical supplies to meet with the owners of the commercial ship that located the men.
The commercial ship was on its way to Guatemala from Kingston.
Glenn Tuttle, co-manager of Boatwatch.org — an international network of resources to aid mariners that are missing or overdue — told the Observer last evening that doctors aboard the ship sent to help were ready to do whatever they could to help the survivors who have been out there for 10 days.
“We don’t know the name of the ship that found them yet, but we are trying to find out. By tomorrow [Friday] I am sure we will receive a proper update.”
Co-manager of Boatwatch.org Eddie Tuttle said, “We don’t know if there are five other men in another life-saving floating device. There are a lot of unknown questions right now,” adding that there was a high-frequency radio operator in Jamaica who had been helping to search for the men.
In an interview with the Observer on Sunday, Glenn Tuttle expressed high hopes, saying: “It is quite possible they are in that skiff and that life raft, floating around out there somewhere.”
The Jamaica Coast Guard, with help from counterparts from the United States, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands have been helping in the search for the vessel and its crew.
