1 Dead, 50 Missing as South Korean Ship Sinks in Bering Sea

A South Korean fishing vessel with 62 people aboard sank in the Bering sea off Russia. Fifty people are reported missing and at least one person is dead, according to officials.

Seven people were rescued and efforts are still on to locate the missing. The high seas and freezing weather conditions were hampering the search, an official from the South Korean fisheries and oceans ministry said to the Associated Press.

The crew included 35 Indonesians, 13 Filipinos, 11 South Koreans and one Russian inspector, the official said. 

The ship, which was nearly 35 years old, started sinking after rough weather conditions and high waves, as high as 13 feet,  brought in sea water.

Authorities in the Russian port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky said the rescued fishermen were doing well and would be transported to South Korea later.

"The condition of the fishermen who were rescued is fine," Artur Rets, chief of the rescue center at the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky port, told the RIA Novosti news agency, reports the Associated Press. "They are currently on the ship that rescued them. They will stay there until the weather improves and South Korea decides how to get them out of here. In the likeliest scenario, they will be picked up by a Korean vessel that is out fishing nearby."

The Sajo industries owns the ship, which was looking for pollocks, a delicacy in South Korea. There are currently five other South Korean ships in the Bering Sea, said Kim Kang -ho, a spokesman for the shipping firm.

Russia allows South Korea to fish for some species in its water under a mutual agreement.