A Coastal Police team returns with the missing fishermen at the Talpona jetty late Tuesday evening.
CANACONA
Tension and anxiety gripped residents in and around Talpona Fishing Jetty after four fishermen went missing at sea for several hours before being safely rescued and brought back on Tuesday evening.
The incident began on Monday around 4 pm when four fishermen ” Tandel Sandeep Arondekar, Vijendra Arondekar, Aniket Govekar (all residents of Talpona) and Anthony J B Rebello of Galgibaga ” left the Talpona jetty in a fibre boat for overnight fishing.
At about 2.15 am on Tuesday, Arondekar called boat owner Sagar Namshikar to inform him of a good catch and said they would return to the jetty within one-and-a-half hours. He also asked Namshikar to keep a vehicle ready to transport the fish to the market.
Namshikar reached the jetty with a rickshaw, but grew worried when the boat did not arrive even after two hours. Attempts to contact the fishermen on their mobile phones failed. After waiting for some more time, Namshikar and a companion ventured into the sea after 4.30 am to search for them.
When the boat still did not return by 7.45 am, anxious family members lodged a missing complaint at the Talpona Coastal Police Station, stating that the boat had not returned and was not contactable.
Search and rescue
Talpona Coastal Police Station PI Theron D’Costa said messages were immediately sent to all coastal police stations, the coast guard, fishing boat associations, the fisheries department and coastal authorities of neighbouring states.
“When the boat was not found in Goan waters, the search was extended to Karnataka, and officials in Karwar were alerted through the coast guard,” PI D’Costa said.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, police received information that a fishing boat with four crew members had been sighted in Karnataka waters and that the fishermen had taken fuel, ice and water. The police managed to contact them once mobile network coverage was available. The fishermen said they were somewhere along the Karwar“Ankola stretch and were sailing towards Goa.
They informed the police that they had run out of fuel and were stranded at sea. They later contacted other fishing boats, sold part of their catch to buy fuel, and resumed their journey.
However, the fishermen missed their navigation and sailed past Talpona, Galgibaga, Patnem and Palolem, crossing beyond the Agonda coast. PI D’Costa and his team then went out in a speedboat, traced them and brought all four back to the Talpona jetty shortly after sunset.
An ambulance with a doctor and nurse was kept ready at the jetty. All four fishermen underwent medical checks and were later reunited with their relieved families.
