Bottom Trawling Search for Bodies Starts

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By Kim Se-jeong

Staff Reporter

With the search and rescue operation for sailors missing from the sunken frigate Cheonan continuing in vain for many days, fishermen are being asked to help.

The Navy and the Coast Guard asked local fishermen to assist in finding any bodies of the missing sailors and collecting debris from the wreck.

Forty-six sailors of the 104-man crew went missing after the 1,200- ton Cheonan sank in the West Sea on March 26.

Yonhap News Agency reported that 10 trawlers were on standby as of Friday to carry out bottom trawling, a fishing method used to catch fish on the ocean floor.

Bottom trawling is carried out by two trawlers in a pair, as they each drag one end of the fishing net.

The trawlers will be stationed on the perimeter of where the Cheonan sank, offshore of the country's northernmost island of Baengnyeong.

A floating crane is also on standby in the nearby waters to lift the wreck.