In the last hours of yesterday, the death of another sailor was confirmed and there are now nine fatalities from the sinking of the fishing vessel Argos Georgia, which occurred last Monday about 200 miles -370 kilometers- east of the Malvinas Islands. At the same time, the operation continues to rescue four missing crew members in the midst of unfavorable weather conditions, with strong gusts of wind and waves up to eight meters high.
“The balance of the situation so far is: there are 14 survivors who have minor injuries, there are nine people dead and four missing. Of the 10 Spanish crew members, there are six survivors, four of them Galician, one from Barcelona and one from Albacete. There are two people dead, they are the fishing skipper, a resident of Vigo, and the cook, from Bayona. And two missing people from the towns of Ribeira and Noya,” said the government delegate of the Spanish government Pedro Blanco , in statements given in the Autonomous Community of Galicia.
Blanco explained that both the survivors and the bodies of the deceased were transported on the Chilean fishing boat Puerto Toro and the FPV patrol boat Lilibet.
"There they will be treated at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital by professionals, although they tell us that they are fine and have minor injuries," the official said of the survivors.
Regarding the rescue operation of the four missing sailors, whose tasks are directed by the maritime authority of the Malvinas Islands, Blanco highlighted that the fishing vessel Robin M. Lee, from the Galician shipowner Lafonia, “remains in the search area and is aided by aerial means and satellite images.”
However, adverse weather conditions play their role in the time-consuming search for the lost crew members. "According to what the Malvinas Maritime Rescue tells us, the weather conditions are very unfavorable, with winds of 35 knots and waves of up to 8 meters, so the rescue operation is approaching very complex," he explained.
Regarding the causes of the shipwreck, the Spanish official indicated that at the moment “they are unknown,” but an investigation will be carried out to determine what happened. “It seems that it was actually caused by an open water leak in the hull of the ship,” he mentioned as the main hypothesis.
