The Mauritius government deployed its coastguard and armed forces to rescue 26 crew of the Chinese-flagged crawler on Monday after it ran aground off the Indian Ocean archipelago nation coral reefs.
The 16 crew — 14 Chinese, one Indonesian, and a Filipino were airlifted to safety by helicopter however, the longliner remains aground, will attempt to to re-float depending on the weather.
The Chinese-flagged crawler has around 130 tons of oil on board but according to a report there were no leaks.
Fisheries Minister Sudheer Maudhoo said the captain of the Lurong Yuan Yu, a trawler flying the Chinese flag, issued distress calls late Sunday afternoon while they were on board.
It is the second shipwreck happened in less than a year in Mauritius after an tanker carrying 1,000 ton of oil struck a reef in July. According to a report, it was the country’s environmental disaster in history.