A fire on a fishing vessel in the Marshall Islands was still spewing smoke nearly 24 hours after it first started, forcing crew to abandon ship on Sunday afternoon.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Koo's 102 purse seine fishing vessel caught fire in Majuro lagoon on Sunday Photo: Koo's V7HC2 — Ben Chutaro
Small boats from a fishing tournament rescued the seven crew members who were aboard the Koo's 102 purse seiner with some jumping into the water.
RNZ Pacific's correspondent Giff Johnson said the 62-metre Taiwanese vessel had just dropped off its large fishing nets at a repair yard in Majuro Atoll inside the lagoon.
"And as it pulled away a fire erupted. And when I talked to people with the company today, none of them had worked out exactly what had caused it. Because actually they were still fighting the fire almost 24 hours later.
"The fire had gone way down, and it was just smouldering, but they actually had not completely put it out."
The burnt hull of the boat is still floating in the lagoon while investigators try to find out what sparked the blaze.
Koo's Fishing Company is Taiwan-based but registers and bases a number of its fishing vessels in the Marshall Islands.
Majuro is a major tuna transhipment hub, with many purse seiners in Majuro to off-load catches before returning to fishing grounds nearby.
