TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — On Thursday (March 14), the same day a Chinese fishing boat sank off of Kinmen, a Chinese fisherman from another Chinese fishing vessel fell overboard off of Matsu, and the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) is assisting in searching for fishermen from both boats.
The fisherman fell overboard about 5.55 km (3 NM) east of Matsu's Beigan Island, about four km outside of the island's restricted waters, reported CNA. The CGA received a notice from the Lienchiang County Government at 12:30 a.m. on Friday (March 15) and sent a ship to assist the Chinese coast guard in the search and rescue mission.
A source said that a 26-year-old crew member from the Chinese fishing boat "Minlianyu 60911" fell overboard at noon on Thursday. Initially, the fishing vessel attempted to rescue the man, but they were unsuccessful, so they returned to China to report the incident and Chinese authorities then informed the Lienchiang County Government.
The CGA dispatched two or three ships in the vicinity of the incident. They plan to conduct a coordinated search for 72 hours.
The source told CNA that China also sent a coast guard ship and three to four fishing boats to help look for the fisherman.
Earlier on Thursday, another Chinese fishing boat, the "Minlongyu 61222," sank 27 km southwest of Kinmen with six crew members onboard. Chinese vessels had found four of the crew, but two of them had died. The other two crew members are still missing and a joint mission between Chinese and Taiwanese coast guard ships to find them is still underway.
