The Yeosu Coast Guard announced on the 12th that the ship “Seogyeongho No. 22” (hereafter referred to as Seogyeongho), which sank near Habaekdo, Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, is upright at a location 82.8 meters underwater. The image was captured using the Coast Guard’s side-scan sonar. The Yonhap News Agency reported that the appearance of the sunken Seogyeongho vessel has been released.
According to the photos and videos released by the Yeosu Coast Guard on the 12th, Seogyeongho sank upright on the seabed at a depth of 82.8 meters east of Habaekdo, Samsan-myeon in Yeosu. The images were composed using a side-scan sonar that the Coast Guard is currently operating.
A side-scan sonar transmits sound waves obliquely toward the sea floor and receives echoing sound waves to acoustically image the shape of the seabed. This equipment has a maximum operational depth of 100 meters and a maximum side-scan range of up to 150 meters (a total of 300 meters including both sides).
The Yeosu Coast Guard publicly released the status of the large trawler “Seogyeongho No. 22” that sank to the seabed near Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, on the 12th. The photo shows images detected and visualized by the Coast Guard’s side-scan sonar equipment on the afternoon of the 10th.
The surviving crew testified that “three people were inside the vessel at the time of the accident,” prompting the families of the missing to request a search inside the vessel and a timely salvage. On the fourth day since the accident, the search authorities planned to conduct a sea search using 31 ships and 7 aircraft, but they are facing difficulties due to poor weather conditions.
The search area, which has expanded to 107 km in width and 74 km in length, is planned to be divided into six zones for searching. Underwater searches using the Navy’s underwater unmanned detector (ROV) will be suspended until the weather improves.
A Coast Guard official stated, “We will mobilize all available forces to focus on the search,” and added, “We will do our best to find and recover the missing crew as soon as possible.”
On the day of the Seogyeongho sinking on the 9th, 9 out of 14 crew members were rescued or found, of which 5 were deceased. Search efforts for the remaining 5 missing persons have not yet shown results.