Death toll up to 9 from sunken boat

BARCELONA, Spain — Canadian rescuers have found more bodies from a Spanish fishing ship that sank in rough seas off Newfoundland, raising the death toll to nine.

A search operation is ongoing for the 12 crew members still missing after the ship went down in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Three members, including the captain, were rescued.

The 164-foot fishing boat, named Villa de Pitanxo, sank in the dark early Tuesday, tossing its 24 crew members into icy seas almost 300 miles east of Newfoundland.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, originally reported late Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 10. On Wednesday, 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 the Spanish broadcaster TVE.

The rescue center in Halifax dispatched helicopters, airplanes and a rescue vessel to the area. Eight boats were searching for survivors, said Luis Planas, Spain’s minister of agriculture, fisheries and food. Planas said it was the “worst tragedy for our fishing fleet in 38 years.”

Lt. Cmdr. Brian Owens, spokesman for the Halifax rescue center, said the region was experiencing 46 mph winds and sea swells up to 18 feet.

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

Spain’s parliament held a minute of silence for the fishermen at the opening of Wednesday’s session. The Galicia community in northwest Spain, 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.