The Navy brought ashore a fisherman who fell sick aboard a local fishing trawler in the southern waters of Sri Lanka. The Navy said that the fisherman had been retrieved by a nearby bulk carrier, and the operation had been coordinated by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Colombo. The patient was rushed to the Teaching Hospital Karapitiya, Galle for medical attention.
The local fishing trawler (Reg No. IMUL – A-0813 GLE) left the Galle Fisheries Harbour with seven fishermen on 10 March for a fishing voyage and was stranded. It was reported by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to the MRCC Colombo established in the Navy Headquarters. A crew member onboard the fishing trawler was in distress on the high seas and requested the Navy’s assistance to transfer him ashore.
Bulk carrier, MV Akij Star, was directed to the trawler’s location to provide assistance through the coordination of MRCC Colombo. With the assistance of MRCC Colombo, the bulk carrier successfully retrieved the fisherman and he was brought off the Galle harbour, while administering first aid. The Navy dispatched a Fast Attack Craft, attached to the Southern Naval Command, to Galle Offshore Patrol Limit (OPL), where they took over the ill fisherman and brought him ashore.
As of now this year, MRCC Colombo has rendered assistance to one distressed foreign ship as well as six fishing trawlers.