Inshore vessel sinks at Ada with four crew members missing

An inshore vessel sunk in the marine waters of Goi in the Ada West District on Friday morning.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered that it sunk with four crew members made up of two Chinese and two Ghanaians who are yet to be found.

The vessel, which took off from Tema, had 10 crew members on board when the incident happened, but some fishermen from Goi intervened and saved six of them.

According to one of the victims (name withheld), they were working in the vessel when they noticed a leakage in a part of it, so they informed the captain on the boat, who turned down their request to go offshore.

“We were in the vessel when we noticed the leakage, but the captain turned down our request to go offshore,” he narrated.

He added that there were 10 people in the vessel, comprising eight Ghanaians and two Chinese, when the incident happened.

Some fishermen from Goi who rescued the victims told the GNA that they were casting their nets in the sea when they heard a cry for help, which prompted them to go to the scene.

“We saw two of them holding on to a cork tied to a rope, and so, we rescued them before seeing the other four sailing in the sea, and we got them rescued,” one of the fishermen said.

Nene Joseph Tetteh Agamah II, the Chief Fisherman for Goi, confirmed the incident to the GNA, disclosing that the incident had been reported to the Ada West District police command at Sege.

He also revealed that officials from the National Security Agency had visited the scene, adding that the residents of Goi had pledged to search for the remaining four crew members who were yet to be found.

Meanwhile, Mr Jerome Deamesi, a Board Member (Finance) of the Ghana Industrial Trawlers Association (GITA), has denied some media reports purporting that the incident involved a trawler.

Mr Deamesi explained that the vessel in question does not qualify to be a trawler but rather an inshore vessel as it was wooden, adding that trawlers have more than 10 crew members, mostly made up of six Chinese and 22 Ghanaians.

He said it was even illegal for an inshore vessel to use foreign crew members.

He again explained that the zone of the sea where the incident occurred was not for trawler operations.