Navy rescues dinghy with two fishermen stranded at sea

Sri Lanka Navy has rescued a dinghy with two Sri Lankan fishermen who were swept away to the Indian waters yesterday, the Navy said.

The dinghy that had departed Silawathura for fishing practices had faced this distress due to a failure in its outboard motor (OBM).

In response to a request for assistance by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the navy had acted swiftly to locate this dinghy that had gone missing.

The Navy had promptly commenced a search and rescue operation in the area where the missing dinghy had been and the development in to the incident was communicated with Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Chennai as well.
 
As the search and rescue operation panned out, MRCC Chennai had informed MRCC Colombo about the spotting of missing dinghy by an Indian Coast Guard ship in Indian waters.

 Accordingly, an Indian Coast Guard Ship had assisted the stranded dinghy with two fishermen to reach the IMBL, from which it was safely towed shoreward by Sri Lanka Coast Guard Ship ‘Samaraksh’.
 
The search and rescue operation was carried out adhering to health and safety guidelines with the onset of pandemic situation, the navy said.