Hopes fade for missing 14 seamen

South Korea today resumed an air and sea search for 14 seamen missing after their freighter sank but officials said it would be a miracle to find anyone still alive.

The chemical carrier Eastern Bright, carrying 2000 tonnes of nitric acid, went down in rough seas off the southern port city of Yeosu before dawn yesterday. A Burmese seaman was rescued about five hours afterwards but 12 Koreans and two Burmese remain unaccounted for. A total of 35 navy and coast guard vessels, including a navy minesweeper equipped with sonar, and four aircraft were searching the area. The navy said the minesweeper late yesterday detected what is thought to be the sunken ship, an 80-metre-long vessel resting on the seabed 60 metres below the surface and some 32km east of Geomun island. Apart from ships searching for the crew, eight vessels were cleaning up a thin oil slick around the shipwreck site from the vessel’s fuel. Earlier this month, South Korea suffered its worst-ever oil spill when a tanker leaked 10,500 tonnes of crude off the west coast after being holed by a drifting barge. No one was hurt in that incident.

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Swimmers scatter after shark sighting

Swimmers were sent scurrying from the surf after a shark was sighted at Sydney’s northern beaches today.

A lifesaver spotted the 1m-2m bronze whaler 200m from shore at Palm Beach  at 10.40am (AEDT), forcing the closure of the packed beach. Palm Beach surf club president Jason Millett said there was up to 70 people in the water and about 200 more on the beach. The beach was reopened after lifesavers shepherded the shark out of the area. Mr. Millett said the shark sighting was routine and that there are no man-eating sharks off the northern beaches. “The water’s really clean at the moment so we’ve got a lot of marine activity around the rocks and they just come in for the small fish they eat,” he said.

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Stricken US ship pilot ‘novice’

The navigator of a cruise ship that ran aground off Alaska was only 22, had no real knowledge of the area and no training on the boat.

Marino Cattiotti was put in charge for four hours because another navigator was ill, the National Transportation Safety Board report said. More than 200 people were evacuated when the Empress of the North hit a rock 25 miles (40km) from Juneau. It was his first voyage on the ship. The report said instructors believed that “placing a recent graduate of the school with no watch experience outside of a training environment, on watch, at night, in pilotage waters, in an unfamiliar vessel, without any additional preparation and/or supervision, was imprudent”. The riverboat-style boat was on the second day of a seven-day cruise when it suffered the accident. The ship’s hull was ripped in a number of places and the propeller damaged.

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