Minister welcomes SAMSA’s investigation into sunken vessel

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The Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy has welcomed the South African Maritime Safety Authority SAMSA’s investigation into the sunken vessel in Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard.

The trawler, Lepanto, sank on Friday afternoon with 20 crew members on board. Nine of the crew were rescued.

The Hout Bay and Table Bay duty crew were activated following reports of a fishing vessel sinking approximately 30 nautical miles off-shore of the Atlantic Seaboard. This resulted in a both air and sea rescue operations in search of the missing fishermen.

The SAMSA spokesperson, Peter Mbelengwa says Minister Creecy believes that the families of the deceased have been informed that the search has been called off and are receiving the necessary support, an appropriate counselling will be given to the other fisherman who survived this incident.

She welcomes the appointment of the casualty investigation team by the South African Maritime Safety Authority who will investigate the cause of the accident.

UPDATE: Search for the fishermen who went missing called off