Cape Town - The 11 fishermen who went missing while out at sea earlier this year have been officially declared dead.

Their deaths were declared by Western Cape High Court Judge James Lekhuleni on Monday, almost six months after their fishing trawler, MFV Lepanto, sank approximately 34 nautical miles off the coast of Hout Bay.

The fishermen, who were employed by Viking Fishing, a subsidiary of Sea Harvest Corporation at the time of the incident, were part of a crew of 20 fishermen who had been at sea for three days.

When news of the incident broke, Sea Harvest spokesperson Anthea Abraham said the vessel had an excellent safety track record with zero reportable safety incidents in the past five years.

The nine surviving fishermen were rescued by other boats in the vicinity after successfully launching their mayday distress call before the boat sank completely.

Following this, search efforts were initiated by emergency rescue services, including the National Sea Rescue Institute(NSRI), to try and locate the missing fishermen.

The emergency rescue service’s failure to trace and rescue the missing fishermen led to the search being called off a few days later and the fishermen were presumed drowned.

This development led to the families of the fishermen and representatives of Viking Fishing petitioning the court to declare the men deceased to facilitate the management of their estates.

Judge Lekhuleni granted the families’ petition, citing that despite extensive search efforts authorities had recovered no new clues that could lead to finding the missing crew.

Judge Lekhuleni recounted the events leading to the sinking, sharing how the surviving crew had managed to inflate a life raft after their vessel capsized while attempting to find and assist their missing fellow crew members.

The lack of clues found to help authorities trace the missing fishermen since the incident occurred led Judge Lekhuleni to believe the men had unfortunately lost their lives at sea the day the MFV Lepanto sank, leaving the court no choice but to declare them dead.

Faadiel Groenewald, 27, and 24-year-old Wilfred Swiers from Pella near Atlantis were among the fishermen who drowned on May, 17.

Groenewald was survived by his one-month-old daughter and partner.

nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za

Cape Argus