On Saturday, 200 deep sea fishing boats left Malpe near Udupi in Karnataka in order to search for the missing boat Suvarna Thribujha, which went missing off the Goa coast on December 16. President of the Malpe Fisherman’s Association, Sathish Kunder told the Deccan Herald, “The fishing boats leave in batches. The 200 fishing boats, which left on Saturday night, will search for two days near Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Malvan areas in Maharashtra and later carry out fishing activities. A committee of 25 fishermen has been formed to assist the search operations as well as the investigation by the Police Department and other agencies.”
The fishing boat, Suvarna Tribhuja, went missing on December 16 off the coast of Goa after leaving the coast for deep sea fishing on December 13, at 11 pm. The boat made contact last on December 16 at 1 am. Following this, no contact has been made with anyone on board.
Following this, several efforts have been taken to draw attention to the missing fishermen and boat. On Sunday, January 6, thousands protested at the Malpe fishing harbour in Udupi to draw attention to the plight of the seven fishermen who were onboard and had been lost at sea for over 20 days. Protestors marched from Malpe Fishing Harbour to National Highway 66, where they stopped traffic for three hours. They demanded that authorities accelerate search efforts for the missing boat and fisherman.
Sathish Kundar also reportedly stated that the association would be taking efforts to chart out a plan of action to trace the missing fishermen and boat. Meanwhile, Yashpal Suvarna, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Fisheries Cooperative Marketing Federation President have requested the search efforts to be increased, and has added that the state government was ignoring the fishermen community.