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Violated maritime safety regulations behind trawler sinking - acting governor

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, April 4. /TASS/. The Dalny Vostok trawler sank in the Sea of Okhotsk due to the captain’s negligence, Sakhalin’s Acting Governor Oleg Kozhemyako said in the Vesti on Saturday with Sergey Brilev news programme on the Rossya-1 television.

"It happened because of a violation of maritime safety regulations," Kozhemyako said explaining that the trawler tanks contained a minimum weight of fuel - 57 tonnes, against 250 tonnes required for the ship stability. So the stability was negative, he said.

When the trawl was being pulled out of the water (about 80 tonnes), the ship listed "drawing in water through usually open portholes."

"I think the tragedy became inevitable in a span of 30-40 minutes," the governor said. "Those who had time to put on life jackets survived but some sailors were in engine spaces and other cabins. This tragedy is a good lesson for captains."

Along with this, the governor rejected other lines in the investigation - a collision with an ice floe or a submarine.

"The Sea of Okhotsk is an internal sea so submarines cannot enter it while fishermen constantly work there and so collisions would have been frequent," he said. "The Dalny Vostok is an ice class ship. Thus, deformations and cracks could have appeared if it had hit a drifting ice floe but not the consequences we have seen."

The Dalny Vostok trawler sank in the Sea of Okhotsk on April 2,330 kilometres west of the village of Krutogorovsky, and 250 south of Magadan. The ship owned by the limited liability company OOO Magellan was registered in Nevelsk, the Sakhalin Region. There were 132 crew on board. According to the latest data available 56 died, 63 were rescued and thirteen remain unaccounted for.