WELLINGTON, Dec 13, 2010 (AFP) - Five fishermen were dead and 17 missing after a South Korean trawler sank in icy waters off Antarctica Monday, Maritime New Zealand said.
A nearby ship plucked 20 survivors from the ocean shortly after the deep-sea fishing boat sank about 6:30 am (1730 Sunday GMT), but survival times without proper immersion suits were only 10 minutes, the rescue agency said.
Maritime NZ said the trawler Number One Insung went down about 1,000 nautical miles north of the McMurdo Antarctic base with no warning in apparently calm conditions.
"We had no distress signal, at this stage we don't know what caused the vessel to sink," Maritime NZ spokesman Ross Henderson said.
He said New Zealand's rescue coordination centre was not informed of the accident until 1:00pm, about six-and-a-half hours after it occurred.
The waters around Antarctica are notoriously rough but Henderson said conditions Monday consisted of light 10 knot winds and a one metre (3.3 foot swell.
Henderson said five fishing vessels were assisting the search under direction from New Zealand authorities, who have responsibility for rescue missions in the area.
He said the 20 survivors and bodies were on another South Korean fishing vessel, Number 707 Hongjin.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force long-range Orion plane may also set off for the disaster site but would take at least eight hours to reach it, Henderson said.
A coastguard spokesman in the southern South Korean port of Busan, where the ship is based, told AFP there were eight Koreans, eight Chinese, 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, three Filipinos and one Russian on board.
Another South Korean fishing boat was involved in the rescue after reporting the accident to its home port, the spokesman said, and it also asked for help from New Zealand.
