CAPE TOWN: Sea Harvest provided an update this afternoon following the tragic sinking of the MFV Lepanto, one of the vessels within the group’s Viking Fishing Division. The vessel sank around thirty-five nautical miles offshore from Hout Bay on Friday afternoon, 17 May 2024.
Authorities confirmed to the company that the search and rescue operation for 11 missing crewmen of the sunken MFV Lepanto has been called off in view of the significant time elapsed since the accident.
Tragically, the missing crewmen are now presumed drowned.
A rescue operation was launched immediately after a distress call was received on Friday, initially by maritime vessels in the vicinity and thereafter the South African Maritime Safety Authority’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) as lead coordinator. An extensive search and rescue operation was conducted with several vessels since Friday by the South African Search and Rescue (SASAR), supported by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).
Nine of the 20-man crew who were onboard the vessel were rescued and arrived safely on Friday night in Cape Town aboard the MFV Armana, another of the Group’s vessels that was in the area at the time of the distress call. The men were reunited with their families after a physical evaluation by a medical doctor and were provided with immediate trauma counselling.
Sea Harvest CEO, Felix Ratheb, said: “Keeping our staff safe at sea is our key priority. As a company, we are devastated by this tragedy. We have been in ongoing contact with the families, with a senior team and a counsellor visiting each family of the missing men today. We will continue to support them, as well as the rescued men and their families. We are also providing updates and counselling for our broader employee base, as this has been extremely upsetting and sad for all of us. We are working closely with the relevant authorities, primarily the South African Maritime Safety Authority, to establish the cause of the accident as soon as possible. We wish to thank our employees and the rescue organisations for their active search and rescue operations since Friday.”
Further information will be released as soon as it becomes available.