On Monday, while at location 0˚ 20’ North 05˚ 24' East inside Sao Tome’s Exclusive Economic Zone, the Thunder poaching vessel sent out a distress call at roughly 01:39 a.m., as reported by Sea Shepherd. The Thunder confirmed that they in fact were sinking.
The Sea Shepherd ship, that is the Bob Barker, answered the distress call as quickly as possible.
According to Sea Shepherd, 35 seafarers from the Thunder’s crew have left the vessel and are currently aboard life rafts. The ship is suffering an apparent water ingress.
The Bob Barker is now conducting an intense search and rescue operation. The Bob Barker’s Captain in the face of Peter Hammarstedt commented:
“We have been sent a distress signal from the Thunder and it seems that the vessel and its crew are forced to deal with a difficult situation. The Thunder’s Captain has contacted us and has stated that the vessel is taking on water and is sinking. We have initiated the launching of our small boat and we are putting all of our effort towards helping the Thunder crew.”
Source & Photos: Sea Shepherd