Tri Marine Purse Seiner Rescues Fishermen Drifiting in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean

2 KIRIBATI FISHERMEN LOST AT SEA ALMOST 2 MONTHS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2005

Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia— Tri Marine’s FSM flag tuna purse seiner ‘Cape Cod’ has rescued two fishermen found drifting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in their small, open fishingboat.

Ruben Paeke, 23 and Atapo Paia, 38, both of Tarawa, Republic of Kiribati were lost at sea for 51 days and had been drifting since March 15th when their small sailing boat was blown out to sea. They were rescued at 2 deg South, 154 deg East by the Tri Marine tuna boat on May 4th after having drifted over 1300 miles in the westerly flowing equatorial current.

Captain Kim of the Cape Cod reported that Paeke and Paia were in high spirits even though they were suffering from dehydration and were malnourished. They were overjoyed that Captain Kim and his crew found them and their small boat in the high seas. The Cape Cod has diverted from her fishing trip to drop the rescued fishermen at the port of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea where they are now receiving medical attention before they will be repatriated back to their families in Kiribati.

Background on Tri Marine
Tri Marine is a tuna supply company with focus on supply of tuna and tuna products to the leading brands of tuna. It has offices in 14 countries and processing activities in plants located strategically around the world. Its tuna purse seiners operate in the Western Pacific and the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Tri Marine was formed in Singapore in 1972. Since then the company has grown to be one of the largest tuna supply companies in the world. Tri Marine is privately owned.

Contact
Joe Hamby
jhamby@trimarinegroup.com