Antarctic Fishermen missing off icy waters in Antarctica

A South Korean fishing vessel has sunk in the icy waters in Antarctica  in the Southern Ocean South of New Zealand.  The 614 ton ship, the Number one in Sung, sank around 0430 South Korean time the South Korean foreign ministry said. It was not clear why the boat sunk the New Zealand rescuers said as the weather conditions were calm.

All vessels in the remote area had been told to go to the site to help look for survivors, including a helicopter, Ross Henderson, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand had said earlier. Twenty members of the crew of the deep water trawler were rescued by another fishing boast that was in the area, five of the crew have died and seventeen fishermen are still missing from the 42 man crew .

The trawler sunk about 1,250 miles south of New Zealand. The search has been scaled back as it is unlikely that the other seventeen that are missing could survive the icy waters longer than 10 minutes without life jackets or immersion suits, rescue controller Dave Wilson told AFP news agency .The international crew were from South Korea, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia.