VLADIVOSTOK, April 2. /TASS/. Russia’s fish factory ship Vsevolod Sibirtsev has arrived in the area where the Dalny Vostok trawler capsized earlier for picking up survivors, but apart from that it can hardly do anything in terms of providing first aid, because it lacks the license and medical supplies, the director of the company that owns the ship (Yuzhmorrybflot), Alexander Yefremov, has told TASS.
"The ship has a well-equipped hospital with a floor space of 450 square meters. Had it been properly staffed and supplied with medicines, it would have been able to offer qualified assistance to shipwreck victims. But our company and the ship do not have the license to provide medical assistance. Consequently, we are prohibited from keeping in store many of the medicines that are crucial in such cases. Accordingly, the hospital is grossly understaffed. The mother ship has just one surgeon and two nurses," Yefremov said. At best the mother ship will be able to take the survivors on board and provide them with comfortable accommodation, foods and warmth.
Vsevolod Sibirtsev is currently in the area of the salvage operation. Some sailors from The Dalny Vostok have been picked up by other ships.
The Dalny Vostok refrigerator trawler capsized in the Sea of Okhotsk with a crew of 132 on board. Sixty three survivors have been rescued. Seven of them are in a very grave condition. Fifty six bodies have been recovered. As Investigative Committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin has said the trawler’s crew consisted of 78 Russian citizens, 42 citizens of Myanmar, five citizens of the republic of Vanuatu, three citizens of Latvia and four citizens of Ukraine.