CANADIAN RESCUERS HAVE ended a search for survivors from a Spanish fishing trawler that sank off Canada’s east coast in bad weather, after pulling three out of 24 crew from the Atlantic ocean.

“Regrettably, at 4 pm AST… following an exhaustive search by a significant number of SAR aircraft and vessels over the last 36-plus hours, covering over 900 square nautical miles, the search for the 12 missing fishers aboard the FV Villa de Pitanxo has been suspended,” Brian Owens of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax, Canada told AFP.

Nine bodies have been recovered, while 12 people are still missing. Three members, including the captain, were rescued alive.

The 50m (164ft) fishing boat named Villa de Pitanxo, which operated out of northwest Spain’s Galicia region, sank in the dark early on Tuesday, tossing its 24 crew members into icy seas 460km (250 nautical miles) east of Newfoundland.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax originally reported late on Tuesday that the death toll had risen to ten. Earlier today, Spain’s maritime rescue service said there had been an error in the count and that Canadian officials had lowered it to nine confirmed deaths.

“It appears that the error was due to the fact that the recovery of the bodies was carried out by different boats and that one body was counted twice,” Jose Luis Garcia, director of Spain’s maritime rescue service, told Spanish broadcaster TVE.

The rescue centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, operated by Canada’s air force and coast guard, dispatched helicopters, airplanes and a rescue vessel to the area.

Spanish Agriculture and Fishing Minister Luis Planas and local fishing officials described the sunken boat as “modern” and prepared to withstand the typically harsh weather of the area. Planas said it was the “worst tragedy for our fishing fleet in 38 years.”

Lt Cmdr Brian Owens, spokesman for the Halifax rescue centre, said the region was experiencing 74kp/h winds and sea swells up to 5.5m.

The crew included 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three workers from Ghana, according to Spain’s maritime rescue service.

The survivors are the ship’s captain, Juan Padin, his nephew Eduardo Rial, and an unidentified sailor from Ghana, reported Spanish news agency EFE.

“I am relieved because I know that both are alive, but I am also very sad for their comrades,” Gloria Padin, the mother of Eduardo and the sister of Juan, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE.

Family members fearing the worst gathered at the Spanish coastal town of Marín waiting for the remains to be identified.

Spain’s parliament held a minute of silence at the opening of Wednesday’s session for the fishermen, while northwest Galicia, which has a strong fishing industry, declared three days of mourning.

“We are talking about people who knew how to sail, they are professionals, good captains and excellent sailors. So they must have been in very difficult seas,” said Galician regional president Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

© AFP 2022, with reporting from the Press Association.