Local men safe after Chile quake
Twenty-four Killybegs fishermen who were crewing boats working off the coast of Chile are safe and well after the earthquake and tsunami which struck the South American country at the weekend.
Six men from the Donegal port are on each of the four vessels which have been working more than 300 kilometres off the Chilean coast.
Killybegs fishing boat owner Martin Howley, who is managing the operation in the Pacific, said he spoke to the crews by satellite phone on Sunday night. He said all 24 men were safe and had not been aware of the quake until after it happened. "Apart from hearing it on the radio they did not hear anything. They did not notice anything. There was a metre wave at sea but you wouldn't notice it that far out at sea," he said.
The epicentre of Saturday's quake was 115km north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.
There are fears that up to 1,000 people have been killed.
Killybegs company Swan Net Gundry has a depot in Concepcion, one of the areas words affected by the earthquake, but the company only stores nets and ropes for the fishing operation and has no personnel there.
"We haven't heard anything, it is only a small depot, but we assume that it may not be there any more," Mr Howley said.
Three of the four vessels were at sea at the time while the fourth was in port in Peru. The Killybegs-based crews make up half of the complement on each boat and include skippers, engineers and deck crew.
Killybegs men Declan Murrin, Kevin McNelis and Mickey Gallagher are skippering three of the boats. Tommy Gillen, originally from Galway but based in Killybegs, is captain of the fourth vessel. The crews are in the middle of a three-month spell in the Pacific.
The boats are fishing off the Chilean and Peruvian coasts and are registered in Callio in Peru.Two of the vessels, formerly known as the Veronica and the Neptune, had been registered in Killybegs before being transferred to Peru.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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